The Vampire Diaries Season Four
by RoniCullen
Summary: In season four, Elena's transition and the hunt for the cure leads to terrifying changes in Beth's life and makes her think of choices she never had and who she really loves...
1. Growing Pains

**A/N Here is the premiere of Season Four! I hope you guys enjoy it. In this season, I think that I made Beth a bit tougher. She won't depend on her brothers quite so much and she can take a beating as well as she can give one out. Otherwise, her personality has stayed the same. Please review and tell me what you think! **

* * *

I woke up on the couch of the Gilbert house the next morning. Damon and Stefan were arguing in the kitchen. I slunk up the stairs to avoid them. I could hear Elena and Jeremy talking in the bedroom. Apparently she'd woken up… I paused around the corner, letting them talk.

"And what could be more horrible than you turning into a vampire? I need my sister, not other one of them." Jeremy was saying. _Ouch_, I thought, looking down at my vampire self.

"We're gonna find a way out of this. Everything's going to be okay." She tried to assure him.

"I hope so…" Jeremy came around the corner. His expression turned to terror as he realized I'd heard him.

"I didn't mean that!" He said quickly. I nodded, sat down on the top step and patted the floor beside me. He sat down next to me.

"I know family-vampire-drama, Jeremy. One night in 1864, I woke up in the middle of the night to find out that my brothers' girlfriend was a vampire, my oldest brother was going against the town to save her, I made a little pact with Stefan that we would stick together and then he ran off after Damon. My father came home and informed me very casually, not all softly or sugar-coated, that he had shot Damon and Stefan and they were dead."

"Wow. You had a really sucky night." He said with a nod. I nodded in echo to his.

"Of course, they weren't actually dead. Then Stefan came in as a vampire, killed my father in front of me and then brought me close enough to death that he thought I was dead. Then Elijah turned me and here I am!" I added, motioning at my surroundings for emphasis.

"Here you are!" He agreed, half smiling. Elena walked past us.

"Where ya going?" I asked.

"I'm starving! Stefan!" She hurried into the kitchen. Jeremy regained his worried look.

"Hey, Bonnie's working on it. It's Elena. Everyone bends over backwards for her anyway…" I said, muttering the last part. He looked over at me.

"Heard that." He informed me.

"You were supposed to." I whispered back. He stood up, so I pushed myself to my feet as well.

"I'm going to help Bonnie."

"You do that. I'll stay with Stefan and Elena." I agreed, escorting him to the door.

"Play nice." He told me teasingly.

"I'll try." I told him, shutting the door after him. Elena was walking back upstairs. I went into the kitchen to join Stefan.

"Hey." I greeted him.

"Hey." He returned dryly. The front door banged open. Stefan and I went into the living room. Police officers came into the living room and pointed their guns at us.

"Stefan?" Elena came to the top of the stairs.

"Elena, don't move." He warned.

* * *

An hour later, Stefan and I were in cells in an old barn. Vervain filled the air, making it hard to breath. I kicked at the cell door, trying to break it open.

"Beth!" Stefan said from the cell to the right of me. I kicked the door again, hard enough to make my foot hurt.

"Beth, enough!" He said. I groaned and slumped down against the wall, coughing.

"This is bad." I moaned. Two officers dragged an unconscious Elena into the barn. They put her in the cell on the other side of Stefan's.

"Hey, boys!" I called as the officers walked past my cell. They paused and looked over at me. I pulled myself to my feet using the bars of my cell.

"I have to tell you something." I told them. They remained looking emotionless.

"It's how to kill that super-vamp over there. No doubt you noticed she's a bit stronger than us? Yeah, I know how you two can kill her real easy." I said, motioning towards Rebekah. She gasped.

"You little-." I ignored her as the men looked slightly interested in this. I kept a straight face.

"It's really simple." I added, lowering my voice a little. They stepped closer.

"All you have to do…" I went on, lowering my voice even more. They stepped closer.

"Is…" I was whispering now. They came within arms length. I grabbed one of them by the throat. The second one stabbed my arm with a needle before I could make any threats. Vervain raced through my veins and I collapsed.

* * *

I woke up with a groan of pain.

"Any other bright ideas?" Stefan asked sarcastically from his cell. I moaned because he was berating me _and_ the Vervain was making me weak and sore.

"I thought it would work." I grumbled.

"It didn't." Rebekah sang a little too cheerfully from her cell, obviously enjoying my pain.

"Shut up." I snapped.

"You tried! That counts as something!" Elena's always optimistic voice came from two cells down, though she sounded weak. I wondered how much I'd missed. As if reading my mind, Stefan filled me in on how he'd gotten shot with wooden bullets and Elena was dying since she didn't feed.

"Considering everything… sucky day. Scratch that: worst day ever." I said with a sigh. The officers came back into the barn with more Vervain. Rebekah looked at me and mouthed 'let's get out of here' at me. I raised an eyebrow, confused. She nodded towards the second guy that was walking well behind the other.

"Excuse me? Hello, sir?" She asked, pretending to be weaker than she was. The first one looked over at her.

"I thought I told you to shut up!"

"Here's the thing: my family, we… we have money, castles, apartments, jewelry; just name your price and let me out." Rebekah went on. The officer got too close to the cell.

"I'd rather watch you die." Rebekah rushed towards the bars. The officer jumped back into Stefan's reach. The second officer ran forward. I reached out and grabbed his ankle as he ran past my cell, tripping him. He hit the ground hard and was unconscious. I craned my neck to see Elena getting some blood from the man Stefan had killed. She opened up her cage, which wasn't as secure as ours. She released Stefan, then heard something outside and ran out. Stefan hurriedly opened my cage door. I went over to Rebekah's.

"You're helping me?" She asked.

"You helped us. Fair's fair." I answered, swinging her door open. She gave me a small smile and then darted off.

* * *

Later that night, I sat on Jeremy's bed with him.

"So Klaus is alive?"

"Yes."

"My day just keeps getting better and better!" I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. He nodded in agreement, running a hand through his hair.

"Hey, we'll figure all of this out!" I assured him. He nodded again.

"I hope so."

* * *

**A/N Any comments, questions, etc. are welcome in the reviews. I hope to hear what you guys think of the start of the new season. **


	2. Memorial

**A/N Hope you guys like this episode. Please review as always.**

* * *

Damon, Stefan and I were in Stefan's room. He was packing stuff for a camping trip in the woods with Elena.

"You're making a big mistake!" Damon told him.

"No, I'm not. If I can get Elena used to animal blood right out of the gate-." Stefan started.

"You're reaching." Damon interrupted.

"Maybe she'll be able to bypass all the things we went through." Stefan finished like Damon hadn't spoken.

"Wrong! The best transition into a vampire I've seen was Beth's. And she had help from a moral, do-good Original vampire and still was a nervous wreck for the next couple years. I remember the break-downs that were caused by just the fact that she was a vampire!" Damon reminded him. I flinched at the memories. Stefan gave Damon a long, hard look. Damon rolled his eyes.

"Better hope she's not a fan of Bambi!" Damon added. He slapped the desk top and made me jump.

"She needs human blood, from the vein!" He went on.

"Oh, come on, you know what happens! Name me a vampire who didn't kill at least one person when they were new!" Stefan said.

"Name me one that went on the bunny diet and didn't kill dozens!"

"If she kills someone, she will crumble! How much pain do you think she could take before she shuts off her emotions?!" Stefan demanded.

"It happens to the best of us, Stefan. We get over it. Give it a hundred years or so!"

"No, I think I'd like her to skip that part, Damon." Damon and Stefan stared each other down.

"Hey!" I yelled, getting in between them. I pushed them away from each other and looked between them.

"What is wrong with you two!? I'm so tired of playing the mediator here! Knock it off!" I cried. I hurried out of the room and down into the living room where Elena was.

"Hey! Beth, are you coming hunting with Stefan and me?" She asked.

"I'm good." I said dryly.

"What did I do?" She asked, confused.

"Do you want me to get you a list?" I asked, glaring at her. She looked utterly shocked.

"Ever since you came here, all you've done is cause them to fight and fight and fight!" I cried, throwing my hand up to motion towards the next floor above us.

"You know I don't mean to do that, I love both of-." I darted closer to her to stare her in the eye. She stopped mid sentence in surprise.

"You know what I think? Anyone who claims to love two boys truly loves neither."

* * *

Damon sat at the bar in the Grill. I walked over, saw the seat Alaric used to sit at and sat down on the other side of it. Damon gave me a half smile of mutual understanding.

"I snapped at Elena earlier. Gonna get after me?" I asked, putting my chin in my hands.

"You're in a crappy mood. I'm in a crappy mood. I'll excuse it." He said with a shrug. I nodded.

"Damon?"

"Hmm?"

"I miss Alaric already."

"Me too. Drink with me."

"I'm underage. Physically, anyway."

"Don't care." I took the shot he handed me and drowned it.

* * *

The next day, Stefan was pulling wooden bullets out of Tyler. Caroline and I had our back turned so we didn't see, but we could tell when Stefan got a bullet out by the groans.

"Please tell me that was the last one." Caroline complained, looking over her shoulder. I glanced back too. Stefan nodded. We walked back over to them. Caroline sat down next to Tyler on the couch and I sat down on the coffee table next to Stefan. Stefan studied one of the bullets.

"These were specially carved; the length, the width… If you were a normal vampire, you'd be dead." He said.

"This guy knew what he was doing. His gloves must have been steeped in Vervain. He was looking and he didn't hesitate for a second when he found one."

"These etchings…" Stefan mumbled. He touched the bullet with his bare finger and yanked it back when it burned him.

"Are the bullets spelled?" I asked.

"I don't know. They're something."

* * *

At the memorial in the church, I sat down next to Jeremy, with Elena and Matt on his other side.

"Before we begin the Mass, we'd like to open the floor to anyone who would like to share a memory about our late friends on the town council. I know that April Young would like to say a few words about her dad. April? April, honey are you still here?" Carol Lockwood asked, looking around from her place at the podium.

"Is there anyone else who would like to share a recollection or a memory about Pastor Young?" She asked. No one moved for a minute. Then Elena stood up.

"Come on up, Elena." Elena walked up to the podium.

"I… Uh… when I talked to April earlier, she was kind of nervous about coming up to speak. And now that I'm up here, I'm kind of nervous too." Elena said. She gripped the sides of the podium.

"The worst day of loving someone is when you lose them." Suddenly, we could all smell blood. Elena tensed. With our vampire hearing, we could hear Damon.

"Nobody move. Don't turn around. It's a trap." Elena was obviously have a hard time.

"I… Um…." Stefan went up to the podium and led her off the stage, back to us. I moved so that Stefan could sit with her as I went back to Damon.

"A trap?" I asked as I sat down next to him.

"Vampire hunter."

"Lovely." I said sarcastically. Tyler walked up to the podium. I stared at him. What was he doing?

"Back in first grade, I was brat who couldn't be bothered with team sports. Didn't care much about anything that didn't effect me. But he was the one who made me understand how important it was to be part of a team; a community. Of giving yourself up for the sake of-." Suddenly there was a gunshot and Tyler fell back. Everyone started screaming and running towards the exit. Damon made his way through the crowd to go after the vampire hunter. I hurried after him to help. By the time I caught up to Damon in the parking lot, he had thrown the vampire hunter to the ground. The hunter shot him with wooden bullets several times. I darted forward and grabbed the gun from him, awarding him a kick in the head just for the heck of it. He grabbed my leg and pulled me to the ground. He was about to stake me when we heard Stefan.

"Damon! Beth!" The vampire hunter jumped in his truck and drove off. Stefan ran over to us as I climbed to my feet. Stefan offered a hand to Damon, who was on the ground, moaning. He took it and Stefan pulled him to his feet, but then punched him in the face so Damon fell back to the ground.

"Stefan!" I protested.

"What was that for?" Damon asked.

"You know what." Stefan growled. He stalked off. I ran over to Damon to help him up and get him back to the boarding house.

* * *

That night Caroline, Stefan, Matt, Elena, Jeremy, Bonnie, Damon and I gathered outside the school.

"Stefan what are we doing?" Damon asked. Stefan had some paper lanterns in his hand.

"We finishing the memorial we didn't get to have earlier." He replied. He handed a lantern to Elena before going on.

"We need to start healing, Damon. We've all lost so much, especially recently. I think we're numb to it. We push it away, we make a joke out of it, ignore how we feel. We've never let ourselves grieve." Stefan was right, that was exactly how I felt right now: numb.

"So you're lighting lanterns?" Damon asked.

"Yeah. We need to do this."

"What we need to do is find out who this hunter is and what he knows about the death of the council. We have more important things to be doing right now!" Damon protested.

"Not tonight we don't." Stefan insisted. Damon scoffed. Everyone ignored him.

"This is for my uncle Zach, my friend Lexi and Alaric." Stefan lit his lantern and let it float up. He handed the lighter over to Matt.

"This is for Vicki." Matt lit his and handed the lighter to Caroline.

"This is for my dad… And Tyler's." She handed the lighter to Jeremy, who looked over at Elena.

"This is for our parents, for Vicki, Anna, Jenna, Alaric." He held the lighter out to Damon.

"No way. I'm not doing that." He walked off. Jeremy handed it to Bonnie.

"This is for my Grams." She handed it to me. I looked at Stefan.

"This is for Zach, and Lexi, and Alaric, and Jenna… And heck for Anna even though she tried to steal my boyfriend!" On that note, I released my lantern. I tossed the lighter to Elena.

"This is, um, for my mom and dad, Jenna, everyone that you've all lost, everyone that this town has lost… And for me, I guess."


	3. The Rager

**A/N Hope you guys like this episode. Please review.**

* * *

Damon and I walked onto the porch. Stefan was outside, just a few feet away from the porch, fixing up an old motorcycle.

"Good day for a midlife crisis. 164 years old… I'd say you're due." Damon said, taking a drink of the bottle of alcohol he was holding.

"Elena's transition to a vampire has been a little depressing. I'm gonna help her have some fun." He explained.

"Oh, those who can't do; teach."

"Ah, so I see we're still fighting. Got it. Where are you going?"

"That hunter jacked Tyler Lockwood of his werewolf venom last night, so basically, he's got vampire poison in a bottle. And I'm gonna find him and I'm gonna eat him."

"I'll go with you!" I offered at once.

"No, no and no. I don't want you getting werewolf venom in you or something." He said, shaking his head.

"Fine. _I'll _go with you." Stefan offered.

"You… I just don't want your help. I just want to kill this guy and get out of town. That was the deal, right? Whoever Elena doesn't choose leaves?"

"What?" I asked, having not heard of this before.

"That was before she turned." Stefan told him.

"And I stayed to help. If I take you punching me as my first clue, I'm not wanted here anymore."

"Listen, you blood shared with my girlfriend and I punched you in the face. You deserved it. Why don't you stop being so dramatic?"

"No, baby brother, dramatic would be leaving before I kill this hunter." With that said, he darted off. I glared coldly at Stefan. He looked mildly surprised.

"What did I do this time?" He asked.

"You're making Damon leave?!" I demanded. He turned around to keep working on his motorcycle.

"I'm not making him. I suggested it." He corrected me.

"If he leaves town, then I'm going with him!" Stefan spun around and walked over to me.

"Whoa, what about Jeremy? Caroline? Me?" He asked.

"Jeremy and I have made it work long distance before, when I was going after _you_. Besides, as Elena has pointed out in the past, I'm going to be forever sixteen and it's not gonna work long term anyhow. Caroline's a big girl; she can handle me leaving. You… You, I'm just done with, like you're obviously done with me!" I turned to walk into the house, but he caught my arm, turning me around.

"Hey, hey, what are you talking about?" He demanded.

"What am I talking about? I'm talking about you! I'm talking about how you're always going to be putting Elena first! Before me, your _sister_!"

"When have I done that?"

"How about since we came back to Mystic Falls?! You know, _you know_, I hate it when you and Damon fight and that's all you two have been doing. You know I don't like her, yet she's at our house every single day! She might as well live here now for crying out loud! You know I love Jeremy, yet you let her compel him to do whatever _she_ thinks is right. You always take her side on everything! You didn't even come to rescue me when I was captured by Klaus for the sacrifice because you were with _Elena_!" I was yelling now. He looked completely shocked, like none of this had crossed his mind before now. I yanked my arm away and stalked off into the house.

* * *

I was in my bedroom, throwing clothes into my suitcase, when Jeremy walked in.

"When did you plan on telling me that you were leaving town?" He demanded. I balled up a tank top and threw it into the suitcase.

"Later. Damon might not actually leave. I'm only leaving if he does." I explained. I went to my closet to grab some shoes. Jeremy blocked my path as I tried to go back to my suitcase with some high-tops in hand. I looked up at him.

"Why?" He asked. I walked around him and threw my shoe into the suitcase before sitting down on the end of my bed. He sat down next to me.

"Because I'm tired of pretending that I'm not hurting. I know she's your sister and you love her, but Elena has pretty much ruined my life." I got up again and went to my desk.

"Beth, come on! Leaving down is a little drastic don't you think?" He was begging now. I grabbed some of my books and shoved them into my suitcase.

"I'd say how everyone bends over backwards for Elena is a little drastic. I'm going with Damon. I'm sorry, Jeremy." His phone rang. He looked at it and then walked out of the room to answer it. I grabbed a leather jacket and was just about to put it in my suitcase when he came back in.

"How about helping Damon and I kill a vampire hunter?" He suggested. I half smiled and slipped into the leather jacket.

"What are vampire girlfriends for?"

* * *

Damon and I hid out behind a rack of medical supplies in the hospital supply closet, waiting for the vampire hunter.

"So what are you thinking? New York?" Damon asked.

"Uh… No. Too many people, too busy all around." I disagreed.

"Do you want to go Forks to see if there really are sparkly vampires there?" He asked me with a smirk.

"Nah. If there are, I don't want to meet them. How about some random town? Just drive until we find one we like?" I suggested.

"I like it." He agreed, nodding.

"I like it too. When are we leaving?" Klaus said, coming to stand beside us.

"Klaus, no." I told him. He rolled his eyes.

"Alright, I'll be a good boy and stay behind. But Rebekah and I have run so many times, I know a runaway when I see one. Or two. What are you running from?" He asked. Just then the door opened.

"Is a hospital really the best place for a germaphope?" The hunter asked. Damon walked from around the rack. I grabbed the two arrows we needed that just happened to be attached to bombs. Klaus took one from me, giving me a nod of agreement.

"Did I say I was a germaphope? Pft, sorry, I meant vampire." The hunter pulled out a gun, but I darted forward, sticking one of the arrows into his leg. Klaus darted around him, shoving the other one into his side. I kicked the gun away from him. Klaus smirked down at him.

"Hello, mate!" Conner tried to pull the arrow out of his side.

"Keep it up, idiot, and we'll be scraping you off the ceiling. Anyone else in the mood for barbequed hunter?" I asked sarcastically.

"You guys are gonna kill me anyway." He mumbled.

"Well, let's not be too hasty. I feel like we're just getting to know each other." Klaus said.

"Let's start with the basics. Where are you from, what do you know, maybe you can cue me in on this 'great evil' because I've fought this guy-." He jabbed his thumb towards Klaus, who smirked. "-and there's nothing more evil than that."

"Yeah, truth be told, I'm as evil as it gets!" Klaus agreed.

"I'm not telling you anything. And if you think if you kill me, it'll be over, there's another waiting to take my place." The hunter growled.

"See, this is what I like to hear: vague threats, ominous prophecies, disappearing tattoos." Damon leaned against a rack as he said it.

"What do you mean tattoos?!" Klaus demanded at once.

"Don't bother; you can't see 'em…. Little Gilbert can, which is weird because normally everything flies over his head." Damon mused.

"Hey!" I protested against the insult. He ignored me. Klaus kneeled down next to him.

"There's more to you than meets the eye, isn't there?" Faster than I could see, the hunter tried to stake Klaus. Klaus caught his wrist.

"Nice try, but I'm faster than your average vampire." Klaus grabbed the stake out of his hand. He saw the mark carved into it.

"You're one of the Five." He whispered, in shock as it seemed.

"The what?" Damon and I asked in unison.

"And I'm faster than your average hunter." Conner was about to pull the string to set off the bomb. Damon grabbed me and darted out of the room with me. The bomb exploded behind us, sending us flying into the air. Damon landed on top of me.

"Ow." I complained. He rolled off me. I pushed myself to my feet and looked behind me as the massive fireball slowly died down.

* * *

Firefighters and police officers were inside the room where the bomb went off. Carol Lockwood, Damon and I were talking out of earshot from everyone else.

"So the sniper was inside?" Carol asked.

"Still is. In tiny little pieces." Damon said with a smirk.

"Good. I'll cancel the curfew and call off the extra patrols. I can't say I approve of your methods."

"Few people do. You're welcome." I told her. She rolled her eyes. Damon went after Meredith while I hurried over to Jeremy.

"Still leaving when Damon does?" He inquired.

"Jeremy-."

"I get it, okay? If Elena left town and left all this behind her, I would eagerly follow her." He told me. I nodded and hugged him.

"Damon might not leave. He's been known to change his mind because of a certain brunette doppelganger before." I reminded him.

"True." He agreed, nodding.

"Besides, knowing this town, something else will come up and I'll need to help you out."


	4. The Five

**A/N I hope you guys like this episode. The next two episodes are my favorites, but I have to upload this one first. Hope you guys like it. **

* * *

I was sitting on the couch in the Gilbert house with Jeremy, watching a stupid sitcom on the TV, when there was a knock on the door.

"I'll get it." Jeremy jumped up and went to the door. Out of habit more than need, I followed him. One of Klaus's hybrids stood on the porch.

"Klaus needs you." Jeremy was too close to the doorway and the hybrid grabbed him. Another one was waiting to grab me. I stepped out and let him. They took us to Klaus's mansion. Stefan was there too. As soon as he saw the hybrids shove us into the room, he super-sped towards us. Klaus got in between us and him.

"I wouldn't. Lucky for us, young Jeremy here is a bit of an artist." Klaus told Stefan.

"I'm not helping you with anything!" Jeremy told him. The hybrid quickly took Jeremy's ring off and tossed it to Klaus. Klaus smirked.

"Oh, I'm afraid you are. If that isn't incentive enough, I could always kill your girlfriend." Klaus suggested. The hybrid wrapped his arm around my throat, cutting off my airway.

"Enough!" Stefan yelled. The hybrid looked at Klaus, who nodded, and then let me go completely.

"You can see the hunter's tattoo… Draw it. Get to work." Klaus told Jeremy. He threw Jeremy a sketch pad and pencil. The hybrid opened the door to another room and Jeremy reluctantly went in. Klaus turned to me.

"You, short-one, are quite the vampire. You _let_ the hybrid take you?" He asked.

"I followed my boyfriend, whom you captured and just threatened!"

"Right… Would you care to stay or not? Because you were not the target, you're free to go." Klaus informed me.

"I'm staying." I told him.

"Alright then, but I want you contained." The hybrid opened the door again. I went in; shooting a look that screamed 'do something' over at Stefan. The hunter was chained up in the next room. Jeremy sat on a chair in front of him, drawing out his magic tattoo.

"You set me up at the hospital. Led me into a trap… Why would you do that?" He was asking Jeremy.

"You were trying hurt people who were important to me."

"Important to you? That vampire is important you?" He motioned as best he could towards me. Jeremy glanced over to see who he was talking about.

"Yeah, she is." He answered without looking away from me. He smiled slightly at me and then he looked back at the hunter, frowning.

"A couple days ago, you seemed to have all the answer and now you know jack. Where did this tattoo come from? Why am I the only one who can see it?" Jeremy asked.

"Years ago, I met someone with the mark. Claimed he had this intense desire to kill vampires, like it was engrained in his DNA. He told me the same thing I told you: that if I could see the mark, I was a potential. He was just some guy I served in Iraq with. I lost track of him and then one day, the tattoo just showed up on me. It started on my hand but the more vampires I killed, the more it spread. Like it was trying to tell me something. I just, I just don't know what."

* * *

A little while later, Klaus came into the room and looked over Jeremy's shoulder.

"Nice lines. Now if you could just hurry it up a bit."

"I'm done." Jeremy handed him the sketch pad and got up. Klaus studied the sketch.

"What is this?" Klaus asked.

"It's the tattoo." Jeremy replied.

"I've seen the tattoo! There's more to it!"

"That's all of it! He says every time he kills a vampire, it spreads." Klaus growled.

"Beth, you can take your little boyfriend home." He said. I didn't hesitate; I took Jeremy's arm and darted back to the Gilbert house, pulling him with me. He leaned against the banister as we got back.

"Ah! Don't do that." He complained. I laughed a little.

"Sorry, it was faster than walking at your speed."

"What about my ring?" He asked.

"Got it." Stefan walked into the house and tossed the ring over to him.

"Thanks." He muttered, slipping it back on. I looked at Stefan.

"This town gets more fun by the minute!" I said sarcastically.

"Why don't you go home? I want to talk to Jeremy about the hunter." Stefan told me. I nodded and went home.


	5. The Killer

**A/N One of my favorite episodes to write! I hope you guys like this one. Please review, as always. **

* * *

The next morning, I was getting really annoyed. And worried. Jeremy hadn't picked up and I'd called him three times. I called him again right as Damon walked into the room.

"Oh, boyfriend ignoring you?" He asked.

"Shut up. I think something's wrong."

"Oh, there is." Stefan said, walking into the room. We both looked over at him.

"Conner the Vampire Hunter has Jeremy in the grill and who knows how many other hostages."

* * *

We were at the Lockwood mansion.

"So we each take a different entrance; hit them at the same time." Damon said.

"Connor's strong, but he can't take us all on." I agreed.

"I called in the hybrids to help too." Tyler said.

"My mom put squad cars blocking the streets. They're saying it a faulty gas line. We're good to go." Caroline added.

"Good, great. No cops, not witnesses, no reason to wait around!" Damon said.

"Alright, hold on, you're not all going." Stefan said.

"He shot me like nine times! If we're killing him, I want in!" Tyler said.

"He's got Jeremy, I'm going!" Elena agreed.

"For once, I agree with the doppelganger. I'm in!" I told him.

"Listen, nobody is going anywhere until I figure out what we're walking into!" Stefan told us.

"Until _you_ figure it out?! Is that where you've been all morning? Out buying bossy pants?" I asked.

"This guy is known for setting traps, right? We'd be pretty dumb to walk into one, especially if he has werewolf venom." Stefan reminded us. Damon groaned, clearly angry.

"Fine, fine! If you want some time to do some recon, you have one hour."

* * *

At Alaric's loft, I was looking through the blinds at Stefan on the street, who was just hanging up on someone.

"Who was he talking to?" I wondered out loud.

"Bonnie, hopefully. Maybe she decided to make herself useful again." Damon said.

"What is that?" I turned around at Elena's question. Damon was unrolling a large map of something.

"It's our way in. Courtesy of Alaric Saltzman's interest in the Mystic Falls Underground Railroad."

"The tunnels, like the ones in the Lockwood cellar." I walked over to see.

"Yep." Damon replied to Elena. Elena's phone rang and she answered it, putting it on speaker phone.

"What did you find out?" I demanded.

"_I_ _can only make out voices."_

"How many hostages?" Damon asked.

"_Three. But Elena, besides Jeremy, it's Matt and April Young_."

"What?!"

"Those two idiots. They are like danger magnets!" Damon complained.

"We have to get them out of there!" Elena said.

"_I just need a little more time._"

"Well, the clock's ticking, brother." Damon reminded him.

"_You know, I could do without the colored commentary_." Stefan hung up.

"I'm going in these tunnels." Elena said. She started to walk off, but Damon caught her wrist.

"No you're not. This guy doesn't know you're a vampire, let's keep it that way." Damon told her.

"Well, maybe that's it. I'll trade myself for the hostages." She tried to walk away again, but Damon held onto her arm.

"No. Best case scenario is you're now a hostage. Worst case scenario: he kills you on the spot."

"Stop treating me like I can't handle myself! Alaric trained me and I've been practicing with Stefan!"

"So that makes you Xena?" I asked. She turned to me.

"Don't you want Jeremy out?"

"Yes, but you're just gonna get him killed!" I growled.

"I wouldn't let that happen!"

"You already have! Several times!" I reminded her. She and I stared each other down for a minute before Damon pushed us away from each other.

"Let's cool off, shall we?" He walked over to the blinds and peered through them.

"Stefan is on his way. This will all be over soon." He assured us.

"Will it? I mean, haven't we already been here with Jeremy before? Isn't this why we sent him to Denver?" Elena asked.

"No, you sent him to Denver after screwing with his mind." I corrected her. Stefan came into the loft.

"Did you find the Tunnel map?" He asked.

"Got it. It was in his weapons drawer with seven stakes, some weird MacGyver crossbow and the last remaining Vervain in Mystic Falls. So how about we get this party started?" Damon asked, smirking.

"Not yet. Klaus is sending one of his men. He'll take the front, you, Beth and I will take the tunnels." Stefan said.

"Since when did we team up with Klaus and the lollypop guild?" Damon demanded.

"Well, I already told you. Connor has werewolf venom. We need someone to draw the fire, the hybrids are immune to it so they're our best bets."

"Well, how are you even sure he has werewolf venom?"

"Stop being paranoid, Damon."

"Start telling the truth, Stefan. Why is Klaus involved? Did he compel you?" I asked.

"I am telling you the truth. This is the best way to get everyone out."

"Okay, what is with you guys, we're wasting time." Elena complained.

"You know what, she's right! Screw your plan. I'll kill Connor myself." Damon agreed. He, Elena and I walked towards the door. Stefan stabbed Damon with a Vervain dart.

"Stefan!" I cried. Stefan lowered Damon's unconscious body to the ground.

"Why are you doing this?" Elena asked, near tears.

"Damon had the right idea with the tunnels. But I'm not gonna go in there if I can't count on him to do it my way."

"If you can't count on him? You just Vervained our brother! That's gonna help so much with your relationship!" I yelled. And he wondered why I was going to leave with Damon...

"Do you think he cares about April or Matt? He'll get Jeremy out for you girls, but then he'll go right after Connor, no matter who gets hurt."

"Then I'm coming with you." Elena said.

"You're not coming with me, Elena. Beth, you can come if you promise to do it my way."

"Fine." I agreed. I hated what he was doing, but if it got Jeremy out, then I was in.

"I'll get Jeremy out, I promise." Stefan kissed Elena and then we darted off towards the Grill.

* * *

Stefan and I were walking through the tunnels. We heard a quiet banging. We hurried towards the sound. We climbed through the vent into the Grill. Matt and April were standing there in the storage room. I grabbed Damon's phone out of Stefan's hand and handed it over to Matt.

"Follow this map, get out of here, take her to Caroline so she can…" We both knew what I meant. He nodded, took April's hand and led her down into the tunnels. Stefan and I super-sped into the main part of the grill. Connor shot at us several times and we ducked behind tables.

"Connor, you don't have to do this!" Stefan yelled. I peeked around the table to look at Jeremy. He was standing on a matt with bombs around him.

"Connor, we end this right now! Just put down the gun and come with me." Stefan called.

"Sure! Come out and I'll hand the gun over!" Connor yelled back.

"This about this! No one has to die! I'll tell you everything you need to know!"

"I don't make deals with vampires!"

"Listen to me, if you die right now, then your whole life, all that killing, it'll all be for nothing! I can give you the truth. Just put the gun down and let Jeremy go!" Just then Elena walked into Grill.

"Please!" Connor pointed his gun towards Elena.

"Don't hurt him!" She pleaded. Connor pointed the gun at Jeremy.

"You come any closer, he's dead."

"Elena, get out of here!" Jeremy yelled.

"You hear that, Stefan, you're girl is watching! I will shoot the boy right in front of her! On the count of three. One. Two-." I jumped up, hands in the air in surrender. Stefan stood up too after seeing what I was doing. Connor pointed the gun at us. Elena rushed at Connor. He shot Jeremy right before Elena tackled him. Jeremy clutched at his stomach, blood pouring out of his wound.

"Jeremy?!" I darted forward, grabbing him and threw him behind an overturned table next to Stefan. The bomb went off. Elena looked up.

"Jeremy?!" Connor used her moment of panic to throw her off him. Stefan grabbed Connor and darted off. Elena hurried over to Jeremy and me. I bit into my wrist and fed Jeremy my blood to heal him. Elena saw his blood and her eyes went vein-y, her fangs extending. I moved to grab her in case she tried to attack him, but Jeremy held my arm.

"Hey, it's okay. I know you're not going to hurt me." Elena's eyes returned to normal.

"How did this happen? Why did he come after you?" She demanded.

"He said I was like him, because I could see his tattoo."

"His what?" Elena asked.

"His hunter's mark. It's invisible to everyone but me. Stefan, Beth and Damon didn't tell you about it?" He looked over at me almost accusingly.

"I haven't talked to her. I figured you'd tell her!" I defended myself.

"Wait, who else knows?" Elena asked.

"Well, that's the thing. I don't know. Apparently, I was with Connor all day yesterday, but I can't remember. Someone compelled me." Elena shot a look at me.

"It wasn't me! I don't compel my boyfriends… Stefan!" I remembered him wanting to 'talk' to Jeremy yesterday. I growled and darted after Stefan, following him into the tunnels and ignoring Elena's confused shouts of protests. I made my way through the tunnels, desperate to catch up with Stefan and Connor. Suddenly Connor came around the corner. He stopped in surprise when he saw me.

"Miss me?" I asked. I rushed forward and grabbed him by the throat, pushing him against the wall.

"Stay away from my boyfriend!" I threatened. I shoved him to the ground.

"Look at you! So worried about him when you're the biggest monster he'll ever meet!" He stabbed a stake into my chest. I looked up at him.

"You missed." I reached up and snapped Connor's neck. He fell to the ground and I yanked the stake out. Stefan and Damon ran up.

"What did you do?!" Stefan cried. I growled at him, letting my fangs extend.

"What did _you_ do?!" I shot back. I looked down at Connor's body and then up at them again.

"Problem solved, F.Y.I."

* * *

**A/N Given Beth's character, I thought it was be more realistic if she killed Connor for trying to kill Jeremy. The storyline will still work out the same way though, whether Elena killed him or Beth did. I'll have 'We All Go A Little Mad Sometimes' up either today or tomorrow. Please review!**


	6. We All Go a Little Mad Sometimes

**A/N Two updates in one day! Kally, as requested, there is a scene in here where Beth slaps Elena. I love writing scenes where Elena and Beth are going at it and you can expect more of them! Also, I totally agree with you! I hate how everyone in the show worships Elena! That's a big part of the reason that I wrote this fanfiction: so _someone_ wouldn't worship her. Thanks for the review! **

* * *

_"You're the biggest monster he'll ever meet!" _

_"What did you do?!"_

_"Problem solved, F.Y.I." _

I woke up gasping for breath. I rolled over in bed, trying to shake the memory out of my head. I tried to get comfortable but I couldn't. Finally I kicked the blankets off me and stood up, not even sure what I was going to do. I did my concerned-sister rounds by looking into both Stefan and Damon's rooms to make sure they were alright. Both of them were sound asleep. I went downstairs, not liking the big house when I was the only one awake. I wandered into the kitchen. I searched through the fridge and pantry, then lowered my standards and went back to the fridge. I got a regular coke and stood sipping that in front of the sink. I didn't look out the window. In my human life, I had an irrational fear of seeing something creepy staring back at me, therefore I never looked out the windows at night. I'd never kicked that quirk out of my life in all these years.

"Can't sleep?" I spun around at the sound of Connor's voice. No one was there. I set my coke can down and wearily looked behind corners. When I turned back into the kitchen, Connor was leaning against the counter. I gasped.

"You know it makes sense: guilty conscience…. How many people have you killed? Not many, I know. And you never felt so good about it."

"You're not here! I'm dreaming!" I said, pointing a finger accusingly at Connor.

"And how do you know I'm not here?" He started to walk towards me. I backed up to keep some distance between us.

"Because you're…"

"Say it."

"Because you're dead!"

"Yes, I am."

"You're a ghost! That's it. You're ghost, that's what's happening right now!" I said, trying to make sense of this. He had backed me up against other counter, trapping me.

"Damon! DAMON!" I screamed, desperate and near tears.

"Can a ghost do this?" He grabbed me by the throat, strangling me. I kicked him hard and he went slid across the floor. I turned back to the counter and desperately grabbed a knife from one of the drawers. I spun around and raised it to stab him as he came back up to me. He caught my wrist. Suddenly I saw it was Damon holding my wrist, not Connor. He had a very concerned and slightly pissed off look on his face, which I would expect anyone to have if their younger sister had screamed for them in the middle of the night and then tried to stab them in the kitchen. I dropped the knife and it clattered to the floor, narrowly missing his bare feet.

"What happened?" He asked, looking around for some obvious danger. I looked around too as I started crying.

"Connor was here!" I choked out. Damon looked back at me, completely confused. I was full out sobbing now.

"He… He… He was here! And… And he was strangling me… I kicked him and then I grabbed the knife… and… and I thought you were… Connor… I saw… I saw Connor, not you!" I sobbed.

"Hey, hey, calm down!" He pulled me into his arms and I sobbed against his chest.

"You were probably sleepwalking, Beth. You used to do that all the time when you were human." He reminded me.

"I wasn't dreaming, you have to believe me!" I cried.

"Okay, I do, I do." He assured me. He led me into the living room and gently pushed me down onto the couch. Then he looked towards the stairs.

"STEFAN! Strap on your hero hair and get down here!" He yelled.

"It's Beth!" He added as an afterthought, knowing that would get him down faster. In a split second, Stefan was right beside Damon.

"What happened?" He demanded. He sat down on the couch next to me and I cried into his shoulder.

"No clue. Our physco-sister-." He said it playfully, not meant as an insult. "-screamed for me. Like a good big brother, I hurried down into the kitchen only for her to attempt to stab me with a freaking kitchen knife and her to start sobbing about how Connor was there!"

"Connor?" Stefan echoed. Damon nodded.

"Think she was sleepwalking?" Stefan asked.

"I'm right here!" I reminded them.

"Sorry… What did you see?" Stefan asked.

"Connor! He was there and he talked and then he tried to strangle me… Look!" I pointed to my neck, where I was sure there would be red marks. Both of them look at my neck.

"There's nothing there." Damon told me.

"Fine! But he did!" I told them.

"The sun's gonna rise in a few minute anyway… I guess our morning's started. Beth, why don't you go get dressed? I'll call Jeremy for you." Stefan said. I nodded in agreement and went upstairs to my bedroom. I went into the connecting bathroom to take a shower. A few minutes later, I was letting the warm water wash over me, grateful for it. When I looked down, I saw blood pooling at my feet like water. I looked up at the shower head. Water. I looked down. Blood. I jumped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around me. I sat down on the edge of the tub and held my head in my hands. I heard the door open and shut downstairs and tuned my vampire hearing into the conversation going on down there.

"I got here as soon as I could. Where is she?" Jeremy. I hurriedly pulled on a tank top and jeans. I started downstairs.

"Her bedroom. Wait. She's a little… crazy right now." Damon told him.

"What do you mean? You said she freaked out, but-." Jeremy started.

"She's seeing Connor and swears he tried to kill her." Stefan explained.

"What?" Elena asked. Great. She was here. Sarcasm. I made it down to the foyer and ran over to Jeremy to hug him. He hugged me back.

"Are you okay?" He asked. I shook my head. 'Okay' was not a word in my dictionary today.

"Maybe you just feel guilty for killing Connor and that's causing anxiety-fueled hallucinations." Elena suggested that eternally 'I want to help' annoying voice of hers. I glared at her.

"Yeah and maybe I also have a unicorn named Stabby in the back yard!" I shot back.

"I'm just trying to help!" She snapped.

"You've been so helpful to me and my family!" I said sarcastically.

"Beth-." Damon started warningly. But I ignored him.

"And you've been so helpful to mine!" Elena returned.

"I'm sorry, have _I_ made your brothers fight? No. Have _I_ caused so much chaos in the town simply by existing? No-." I started on her.

"No, but honestly, Beth! You think that being a vampire isn't going to effect Jeremy-?"

"Right here!" Jeremy put in. Elena went on like he hadn't spoken.

"You're going to be sixteen forever. He's going to turn_ seventeen_ soon. He's going to grow up and you're not. What kind of a life is that that you're purposing to give him, because I don't see-." I slapped her, not holding back because she was now a vampire and would heal fast. She looked totally shocked, holding her cheek with her mouth open. Stefan and Damon just stared at me. Jeremy was standing behind me, so I couldn't see his reaction, but I did know for a fact that he didn't try to grab me to stop me. Point: Beth and her hot boyfriend.

"Hey, remember when you slapped me after sending Jeremy off to Denver? Revenge, sister. Now I haven't slept in twenty-four hours. I'm hallucinating. I'm actually feeling weak, like I got Vervained or something. So forgive me if I'm not in the mood for you and you're…_personality_." I told Elena. Stefan led her from the room before we could really get into it. I was itching to kick her butt…

"Why don't you take her upstairs, Jeremy?" Damon suggested through his teeth in the 'Stefan and I need to talk, but I don't want Beth here' kind of way that I was all too familiar with. I let Jeremy led me back up to my bedroom anyway. I sat down on my bed to pull on my boots.

"You saw Connor?" Jeremy asked, leaning against the doorframe. Apparently he wasn't going to touch the subject on how I slapped Elena. Good. I nodded slowly in answer to his question, knowing full well how insane that sounded.

"Um…" He struggled to say something that wouldn't make it sound like he thought I was insane, which he obviously did. I went into my bathroom to grab my leather jacket off one of the hooks it was hanging on in there. I slipped it on in front of the mirror.

"Well, maybe you were just sleepwalking or something." Jeremy suggested from my bedroom. I rolled my eyes at the generic suggestion that was as stupid as it sounded and looked up at the mirror. I gave a small scream when I saw Connor behind me in the reflection. I spun around but slipped on the floor and went down hard. The bathroom floor was suddenly covered in blood; KILLER written in blood on the walls and mirror. Jeremy appeared in the doorway.

"Beth!" He ran over to me. Slowly, the blood disappeared and everyone was normal again. I was still breathing hard as I sat on the floor in shock. Then Connor appeared in the doorway. I screamed again, struggling against Jeremy, who held my wrists. He and Connor held me down on the floor as I desperately tried to get away, screaming the whole time.

"Beth, Beth!" The voice… It wasn't Connor's… I opened my eyes. Damon and Jeremy were the ones holding me down, looking as terrified for me as I felt for myself. I stopped struggling. They wearily released me and let me sit up.

"Ah… The hallucinations have started." Klaus said, coming into the bathroom. I moved away from him, my back against the side of the bathtub. I noticed how Damon and Jeremy both moved ever so slightly to be in between Klaus and me. Stefan and Elena came in. Elena moved next to Jeremy and Stefan got between Klaus and me as well.

"That's called the hunter's curse." Klaus added, smirking and folding his arms across his chest as he leaned against the doorframe. I grabbed Jeremy's arm and pulled myself to my feet.

"What do you know about it?" I demanded. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Connor behind me. I spun around and stepped away, inadvertently putting myself closer to Klaus. Although that might not be a bad thing; I couldn't think of anything who could kill him or would even want to in order to get to me.

"Quite a lot." Suddenly he darted forward and grabbed me, darting away from the boarding house. Once we were in his mansion, he walked at a human speed. I struggled against him.

"Let go of me!" I yelled. He was carrying me now as I tried to kick at him and anything around me. A hybrid opened a door to another room and Klaus dragged me in.

"Certainly." He dropped me on the hardwood floor. I scrambled to my feet and turned back to him. He looked around the room.

"I apologize for the lack of windows; it's to preserve the art. And of course, to prevent you from taking off your daylight ring and burning yourself to death in the sun."

"I wouldn't kill myself!" I protested.

"Oh, but you'll want to! I did. Problem is, I'm immortal."

"You went through this?"

"Yes, I did. For fifty two years, four months and nine days. I was tormented, in my dreams, my every waking moment, relentless, never ending torture… It was the only period of my life when I felt time…"

"So you knew this would happen if Connor died? That's why you tried to keep him alive? Does Stefan know?"

"All he knew was he had to be kept alive."

"What else does he know?"

"That's one of lives little mysteries, isn't it?" He headed for the door.

"How did you make it stop?" He stopped and looked over at me.

"I didn't. Eventually it just stopped… You'll thank me for keeping you in here later. Oh… And a warning: the hallucinations tend to come in strange forms." He knocked on the door and the hybrid opened it. He walked out and the door shut behind him, leaving me alone.

"Not quite alone…" Connor told me. I jumped.

"Would you prefer to talk to someone else?" Suddenly he was Katherine instead.

"How about me?" She purred. I collapsed on the bed and held my head in my hands.

"Please go away!" I pleaded.

"Nope. I'm good. Remember in 1864 when Damon returned from the war? How you ran over to him and hugged him? Where's your big protector now?"

"Leave me alone!"

"Are you sorry you killed me?" I looked up at Connor.

"Yes! Now leave me alone!"

"Are you sorry that Lexi's dead?"

"What?"

"Lexi. Best friend, right? Grieving last a full five minutes."

"SHUT UP!" I yelled. I moved to a chair and pulled my knees up to my chest, covering my ears and keeping my eyes closed.

"You don't want to talk to me? Fine." I looked over my shoulder at Anna.

"How about me?"

* * *

"Don't you ever stop crying?" I couldn't tell how much longer it was. I felt like years. Maybe it had been. Katherine circled around me.

"Poor Elisabeth… always the victim. 'Oh, I'm just as messed up as Elena. I deserve to be first'!" Katherine mocked. I was sobbing, wishing it would all just stop.

"What does Jeremy think of you now? A _killer_."

"STOP!"

"The girl he fell in love with was the sweet, shy little Elisabeth Salvatore… Not a killer!"

"Stop it, stop it, please!" I pleaded.

"At least you can bond with Klaus. Where's Elijah? Oh yeah, he's disappointed in you, I'd bet." I spun around and launched myself at her. She wasn't there and I hit the floor hard. I moved up against the bed and looked around the room.

"Really think I'd go away that easy?" I jumped as I saw Katherine sitting on the bed.

"I'd bet that people would be relived if you were gone. Your brothers wouldn't have to worry what you were doing to screw up their plans every single day and don't pretend that they wouldn't love it if you stopped fighting with Elena… Jeremy could date a human girl… One better looking, certainly… It would all be better if you weren't with them!"

"I'm not going to kill myself!" I yelled at her.

"Why not? It's not like you're worth anything to anyone anyway!" I heard the door open. I spun around. Connor came into the room.

"NO! NO!" I screamed. He walked towards me. I shoved him against the wall, choking him. Then I saw the open door. This was my chance. I threw Connor to the floor, then darted past him and out the door. I ran through the mansion until I was outside. I kept running, not sure where I was going. I slowed down to a walk when I couldn't run anymore.

"Are you ready to die yet? It's your only way out of this." Connor said, coming up on one side of me.

"You can't take back what you did. It can never be undone. You're a monster! Jeremy would love to see you die!" Katherine said from the other side of me. I stopped dead when another figure was in front of me.

"Jenna?" I asked. Aunt Jenna walked over to me with a smile on her face.

"I'm here. So is she." I looked over to my other side. Lexi was smiling at me.

"I'll take over." She told Jenna. Jenna disappeared.

"Is this really happening?" I asked through my tears.

"It is if you believe it is. Yeah, I know, confusing. Here, come here." We hugged and I sobbed into her shoulder.

"Let me see your ring." I pulled away and showed her my hand, where my daylight was.

"The sun will be up soon." I looked towards the sky and saw she was right.

"Then it will all be over, if you let it." She said. I looked down at my daylight ring again.

"It will be?"

"Of course." I nodded.

"Because I deserve to die." I said. She smiled and nodded. I slipped my ring off my finger.

"Throw it!" She encouraged. I tossed it as far as I could into the forest.

"Wait! I can't do this! Jeremy needs-." I started.

"Jeremy needs you to be out of his life. He'll be better without vampires all around him… You can be a ghost that helps him, instead of a monster who hurts him." She assured me. I nodded again.

"You're right… Will I see you on the Other Side?"

"Of course! Best friends forever, right?" I smiled.

"Right!"

"Beth?!" I turned as Caroline hurried over to me. The sun was slowly starting to rise.

"Beth!" She ran over to me.

"I'm so glad I found you! Jeremy is going to fix this." She told me.

"No, I fixed it." I assured her.

"You did?" She asked, confused.

"Yeah." She looked down at my hand when I held it up.

"Where's your ring?! Beth!" She looked at the rising sun.

"DAMON!" She screamed. He darted up from the other direction she had come.

"You found her!" He said in relief.

"She doesn't have her daylight ring, Damon!" Caroline cried. The sunlight creeped through the cover of the trees onto the street.

"It'll all be over soon." Lexi whispered in my ear. Damon cussed.

"Beth!" He rushed towards me to try and grab me, but I darted away from both of them.

"It'll all be over! Then there are no more hallucinations and everyone will be better off without me." I told them.

"No! No one will!" Caroline cried.

"Beth, listen to yourself!" Damon added. He glanced nervously at the sky. Connor appeared in front of me.

"Just another minute or so… Then I'll leave you alone for good." He promised. Then suddenly, he disappeared. I could think straight. Why did I want to kill myself? No….

"Damon!" I ran and hugged him. I pulled away, opening my mouth to say 'I think it's over' when my hand started to burn. The burns crept up my arms and to my face. I screamed.

"Come on!" He said, desperately. Caroline and Damon grabbed me by the arms and hauled me vamp-speed to the boarding house. They threw me into the living room and Caroline swiftly shut all the curtains to keep the sun out.

"I'll find her ring before she gets any other bright ideas." Damon said over my shoulder to Caroline, hugging me. He reluctantly left to go find my daylight ring. Caroline walked over to me.

"Don't scare me like that!" She yelled at me. Then she pulled me into a hug.

"Are you okay?" She whispered.

"It was like a dream… I remember, but it didn't seem like me."

"It wasn't… I'm glad I have my best friend back." I hugged her tightly.

"Me too." The front door opened. Caroline and I pulled away from each other as Stefan walked into the house. He saw me and breathed a sigh of relief. I ran over to him. He collected me in a hug that pulled me off my feet.

"You're alright!" He gasped.

"Yeah, I'm okay now." I reassured him. I pulled away and looked between him and Caroline.

"What did you guys do to stop the Hunter's Curse?" I asked, focusing on Caroline.

"You know how Jeremy could see Connor's tattoo?" Stefan asked. I nodded, looking back at him.

"We kind of made him the next vampire hunter in the line… Which means he has the tattoo and is really good at killing vampires…. So he got a tattoo." Caroline said with a shrug.

"Okay, then." I said with an echoing shrug.

"And there's a cure."

"What?" Caroline and I asked in unison.

"That's why I was working with Klaus… There's a cure to turn a vampire into a human again." Caroline and I stared at him in shock.

"Elena and I broke up-." He started to add.

"YES!" I realized after the happy shout left my mouth that it probably wasn't the best thing to say. I quickly patted his shoulder.

"Sorry." I added.

"Because she loves Damon and they want be together." He finished.

"Crap." I muttered.

"But there's a cure?" Caroline asked.

"Yes."

* * *

**A/N Am I the only one that was laughing at the 'YES!' and then 'Crap.' that Beth put in? Because that's pretty much what I was thinking when they broke up during the episode. As always, please review and tell me what you think!**


	7. My Brother's Keeper

**A/N Sorry for not updating sooner. **

* * *

"Damon!" I hurried downstairs into the living room. He looked over at me.

"Yes?" He asked.

"Why is Jeremy avoiding me?"

"How should I know?"

"You and Stefan turned him into a vampire hunter and now he's avoiding me!"

"Any other obvious facts you would like to point out?" I rolled my eyes and left the boarding house. I went to the Lockwood mansion, where the Miss Mystic Falls pageant was being held. Caroline hurried over to me.

"There was a last minute escort change. Where is Jeremy?!" She demanded, grabbing my arm and pulling me to the side.

"I haven't seen him since I got over my psychotic break. I think he's avoiding me." I told her.

"Do the math. Emo teen, open bar, it's fine." Damon said, coming up behind us.

"Matt said that Jeremy's been having nightmares about killing vampires!" Elena hissed as she joined us.

"Relax; I'm sure he's fine." Damon assured us. Elena seemed to relax at once. She walked off to talk to Carol Lockwood. I shot her back a look before looking at Damon again.

"I have a bad feeling." I whispered.

"Fine! I'll go find him!" Damon finally relented with a roll of his eyes. He stalked off. I sighed and walked into the Lockwood mansion. Maybe I could find Tyler. He was still upset about having his hybrid friend killed by Jeremy to activate the mark. The least I could do was reassure him of my mental health and apologize. I saw Jeremy in the crowd out of the corner of my eye. I turned towards him. Our eyes met and he headed into the mansion quickly. I gritted my teeth. Was he seriously so desperate to avoid me? I followed him into another room where no one else was. I saw him sitting down on a chair, blood streaming out of a cut on his hand.

"Hey, where have you been and… what did you do?" I demanded. Jeremy stood up.

"Connor was right… All I can think about is killing vampires!"

"You're nothing like Connor, Jeremy!"

"I want to believe that… And I know I don't want to hurt you, but everything inside of me is telling me to drive this stake through your heart." I backed away.

"Um… How about not doing that? It's me, Jeremy. Come on, I'm you're girlfriend!" I reminded him.

"But you're a vampire."

"I would never do anything to hurt you!" I reminded him. Suddenly he shoved a stake into my stomach. I cried out in pain. He shoved me to the ground and grabbed the stake from my stomach. He raised it to finish me off. I just looked up at him in total shock and hurt.

"Jeremy!" Matt ran into the room.

"Get out of here, Matt!" Jeremy snapped. He tried to bring the stake down on me, but I held his wrist to stop him.

"Jeremy, you don't want to do this! Look at her! It's Beth, you love her!" Matt went on.

"Shut up, Matt!"

"Look at me! I'm human and I'm telling you not to do this!" Jeremy hesitated, the force he was using to try and stake me subsiding. Suddenly Stefan ran into the room. Stefan pushed him against the wall.

"Matt, get him out of here!" He passed Jeremy off to Matt who all but threw Jeremy out of the room. Stefan ran over to me and pulled me to my feet.

"Are you okay?!"

"What happened to him?" I sobbed.

"Shush, its okay." He tried to reassure me.

"What did you do to him?! WHY DID YOU TURN HIM INTO A HUNTER?!" I cried, pushing him away from me. He gritted his teeth.

"To get the cure!"

"I don't care about the cure! You just ruined him! He tried to kill me!"

"For Elena-."

"IT'S ALWAYS FOR ELENA, ISN'T IT?!" I screamed. I stared hard at him and then hurried out of the room.

* * *

That night, Elena came to my bedroom door.

"What?" I asked from my bed.

"I just wanted to tell you that I'm moving in."

"What?!"

"Yeah… With Jeremy and all that, it's just better if I'm here not there." She explained. I grabbed my shoulder bag from my desk and walked past her.

"I'll be at Caroline's house. Have fun. Don't go in my room."

"Should I tell Damon when you'll be back?" She called after me. I turned and looked at her.

"You don't understand: I'll be staying at Caroline's house because I don't like you and I don't want to live in the same house as you." I explained slowly. I walked down to the living room.

"I called Caroline. She said we can both stay as long as we want." Stefan told me. Good; we were on the same page.

"Awesome. Let's go."

* * *

We got to Caroline's house and the three of us were sitting in the living room.

"Elena's right… I just need to let it go." Stefan said.

"No, _you_ are right. It's not pretty and it's not easy but you can't give up on her." Caroline argued.

"By getting the cure? Which means ruining Jeremy?" I asked.

"Hey, Matt called. Jeremy feels awful." She told me.

"And I can't stop searching for the cure even if I wanted to. Klaus wants the cure." Stefan said.

"Why?" I asked.

"He wants to keep Elena human so he can make hybrids." He answered.

"He's gonna need them. Tyler and Hayley have them almost all unsired!" Caroline told us excitedly. Then she gasped, realizing something.

"What?" Stefan and I asked in unison.

"I was trying to understand why Klaus was so intrigued by Damon and Elena. He said I would figure it out… This is what he was talking about."

"What are you talking about?" Stefan demanded.

"Think about it. Every time Elena's had a problem, Damon has been the magic solution!" She cried.

"Today Elena was worried about Jeremy, Damon told her to relax and she didn't care about it anymore…" I whispered, thinking about it.

"When Elena started feeding, who said she could only drink blood from the vein?" Caroline asked.

"Damon." Stefan growled.

"And when she tried to drink blood from animals?"

"She couldn't keep it down."

"And blood bags?"

"Same thing."

"Name one vampire in the history of vampires who couldn't drink blood from a blood bag?!" Caroline cried.

"Damon said she couldn't so she couldn't!" I said, standing up when I realized what she was getting at.

"Damon likes the red dress, Elena likes the red dress." She added.

"Damon's blood created Elena." I added. Stefan grimaced and shook his head but I was the one that spoke.

"Elena's sired to Damon."


	8. We'll Always Have Bourbon Street

**A/N Sorry for not updating sooner. As usual, please review**

* * *

"This is a disaster!" Caroline cried.

"Look, we don't know anything for sure." Stefan told her. I shot him a look.

"Yes we do! Elena is sired to Damon. Her one singular desire is to make Damon happy, like Klaus and his merry band of hybrids!" I told him.

"No, it's not! A vampire sired to a vampire is one in a million; maybe it won't affect her the same way." He insisted.

"We already know it's affecting her! She's become Damon's lapdog!" Caroline reminded him. Stefan glared at her.

"It's true! Everything he says, she agrees with. Everything he asks her to do, she does." I was quick to jump to Caroline's defense.

"We need to do something." Caroline added. She pulled out her phone.

"Wait, wait. This isn't gossip, Caroline. You can't just drop it on her before we know what's happening for sure." Stefan stopped her.

"I need to talk to Tyler, okay? Maybe he'll know what to do."

"Alright, talk to Tyler, but please don't tell anyone else. If this is true, then it may have influence on Elena's every action and emotion since she became a vampire."

"I say tell her. See the look on her face when she learns she's Damon's little-." I started.

"No!" Stefan told me firmly. Caroline looked between us in a way someone would look between two dogs about to fight. Stefan stood up from the couch.

"We'll tell Damon." He compromised. Caroline looked over at me.

"Would he use her, knowing he had power over her?" She asked.

"It's Damon. It depends on his mood. Normally, no." Stefan stood up and headed towards the door.

"Let's go tell him." He sighed. I looked at Caroline.

"Have fun." I told her, waving over my shoulder as Stefan and I left.

* * *

When we got to the boarding house, Elena and Damon were just coming out the front door, laughing and smiling at each other. They stopped when they saw us.

"Hey." Elena mumbled.

"Hey." Stefan returned.

"Elena?" I asked. She looked up at me, some slight confusion on her face since I was actually keeping my voice polite and nice to her.

"School. Go. Fly, be free but do it somewhere else." I gave her a little push away to make it clear I still didn't like her before Stefan and I turned to Damon.

"Listen, we need to talk."

* * *

Later, we were in the living room and Stefan and I had explained everything we knew to Damon.

"Sired? Really Stefan? That is the most pathetic nonsense I've ever heard out of your mouth and you've said some crap in your day!" Damon told him.

"Hey! If you don't believe him, believe me! She is sired to you, Damon!" I cried.

"You can't deny she's different since she got turned." Stefan added.

"Sure I can! I finally got Elena to a good place about being a vampire. You two idiots just can't stand that she's happy because of me!"

"Alright, you know what? Prove me wrong. Tell her it's okay to drink from a blood bag." Stefan told him.

"She can't. Her weird doppelganger body rejected the blood from the bag!" Damon reminded him.

"Right, because you told her too. You said she had to drink warm human blood straight from the vein. She almost died to make you happy! Look, just ask her to drink from a blood bag. Make sure you tell her how happy it would make you if it works. If I'm wrong, I'll be the first to apologize." Stefan told him.

"But I won't apologize, because we're right." I snapped.

"When her body rejects the blood, which it will, your apology better be epic!" Damon growled. He got up and left. Stefan's phone rang.

"It's Caroline." He put her on speaker phone.

"_I talked to Tyler_."

"And?" He pressed.

"_The sire bond exists because the hybrids are grateful to Klaus for reliving them of the pain of having to wolf out every full moon and that's why they have to turn until they're not ruled by the pain anymore._"

"Right, but Elena's not a werewolf, so what's the vampire equivalent?" Stefan asked.

"_Well, that's the problem. There isn't one._"

* * *

Later, Damon and Stefan were about to leave for Bourbon Street, which I was apparently not allowed to go along for.

"You have to watch Elena." Stefan reminded me as he headed out the door. I nodded and shut the door behind him. I gritted my teeth. Tonight was going to be so fun…

* * *

Somehow during the night, Elena, Bonnie, Caroline and I ended up in Damon's bathroom with Elena sitting in the bathtub. I was pretty sure we had drunk a little too much wine…

"Check this out: vamp speed video!" Bonnie handed her phone to Elena. Elena laughed as it showed her vamp-speeding around the living room.

"I look like superman, watch this!" She showed us how she'd paused it so there was a blur behind her.

"This years Christmas card!" I laughed.

"Being a vampire is so weird… I love this bathtub! Why don't we come here and hang out more often?" Elena wondered, patting the side of the tub.

"I'll tell you why. Cooties. Think of all the girls Damon lured into his den!" Caroline laughed at her own joke. I grimaced. Bonnie shot her a look. Elena sat up straighter, flat out glaring at her.

"Okay, I'm sorry! I've been good all night. I'm stopping now." Caroline told us.

"No, don't stop on my account. Rip away. I mean it's only Damon, right?" Elena asked sarcastically.

"Well, say what you want about Ripper Stefan, but at least he wasn't a man slut!" Caroline shot back.

"Come on!" Bonnie pleaded.

"So what exactly was it that made you jump right into bed with him as soon as you met him?" Elena asked her.

"Hey, why don't you not turn into a pain in the butt tonight, Elena." I suggested.

"You hate me no matter what I do, Beth! But Damon is always there for me when I need him!"

"Yeah, because he's hoping you'll sleep with him!" Caroline snapped.

"Well, maybe I did!" We stared at her in shock.

"What?!" Caroline and I cried in unison.

"You didn't…" Bonnie moaned.

"Yeah, I did! I know you two have issues with him and Beth has issues with me but I just wanted to spend tonight with my friends so that I could tell them about it." She got out of the bathtub and stalked off. We followed her. She was downstairs, cleaning up some of the mess.

"Elena, come on." Bonnie pleaded again.

"Party is over. You guys need to leave." She snapped.

"Guess what, Elena? This is my house, not yours! They can stay as long as they darn well please to, you don't make the rules here!" I growled.

"Don't be mad, okay? We were just looking out for you!" Caroline added.

"Do you think it makes me happy that you two hate him? But I'm falling in love with him!" Elena told us.

"Ugh! Elena, you're not falling in love with him! You're sired to him!" Caroline yelled. Bonnie and Elena looked at her in shock. I smirked.

"Cat's out of the bag now…" I murmured.

"What are you talking about?" Elena demanded.

"Look… I'm sorry it came out that way, but it's true. Damon's blood turned you. You couldn't feed from animals or blood bags because he told you so. Then he suggested you try again and…" Caroline motioned towards one of the empty blood bags that Elena had drunk.

"No… There's no way!" Elena protested.

"Yeah there is!" I told her.

"You two both think that's true?" She asked.

"Yeah. Ask Stefan. He does too! And Damon, because they are on Bourbon street right now looking for a way to un-sire you!" I told her.

"It's not your fault Elena, Damon took advantage of you." Caroline told her.

"Okay, you need to leave!" Elena growled at Caroline.

"Now!" She added, going over to the front door.

"Why don't you leave?! This is my house, not yours!" I reminded her.

"Stop being such a brat! I live here too!"

"Not my idea and certainly not fun for me!"

"Get over it! How long before you realize that I'm going to be in your life?"

"Actually, I hoping to heck that we find that mysterious cure and you go back to being human and die!" We glared at each other for a minute. Then she looked at Caroline.

"Caroline, leave." She yanked open the door for Caroline and saw three hybrids out on the porch. They rushed in. The female grabbed Caroline. The males threw Elena and me against the walls and kept us there with their hands wrapped around our throats. Bonnie started a spell. The lights flickered and then broke in showers of glass.

"Stop!" The female hybrid yelled. Her eyes had turned yellow and her fangs were inches from Caroline's neck.

"One bite from a hybrid and she's dead, remember?!" The hybrids threw Elena and me to the floor and darted off with Caroline.

* * *

In the woods, Tyler was talking on the phone with Hayley. Elena was reading a text from Bonnie. I was worrying.

"I get it, Hayley. I'll find them and get them in line." Tyler hung up.

"Bonnie says no luck with the locator spell." Elena informed us.

"They've got to be here! They're not dumb enough to be in town and risk getting caught by Klaus." I muttered.

"What do they want with Caroline?" Elena asked.

"Kim is trying to prove that she's alpha. If I can make her submit, the pack will fall in line and we can finally get them free of Klaus. You'd think they'd play along with how much they hate Klaus…" Tyler explained.

"But Adrian doesn't, does he? I mean, he's still sired to Klaus." Elena reminded him.

"Being sired doesn't make you feel differently about someone. I hated Klaus but I still did everything he said. The bond affects how you act, not how you feel." Tyler told her. Suddenly we heard Caroline scream.

"Caroline!" I gasped. We ran towards the sound. We ran into the barn. Caroline was chained up there, getting tortured. I ran towards her, but more hybrids caught me. They held Tyler, Elena and me back.

"Ease up, Kim. Klaus won't like this." Adrian reminded her.

"That's a very good point. Do you think he'll like this?" Kim pulled out a stake.

"NO! Hey, hey, look at me!" I yelled. She glanced at me.

"Ever heard of Klaus's brother, Elijah? He made Klaus promise that Klaus wouldn't hurt me. I'm just guessing that his hybrids killing my best friend in front of me will count as me getting hurt. He will hunt all of you down, if Klaus doesn't beat him to it for Caroline!" I told her.

"Maybe I'll just kill you first." She suggested. Tyler broke free and grabbed Kim by the throat, sticking his hand into her chest and grabbing her heart.

"Stay back! I'll rip her heart out right now!" Tyler threatened. The hybrids backed up. I ran to release Caroline.

"Kim put you all at risk today, but I'm not gonna hurt her. I'm not Klaus. I don't kill and torture my own friends to get what I want! Now, we broke the sire bond, but if you want to be free, we have to work together! No one can step out of line. Now, you're either with me or you're against me. Submit! Submit or you die!" Everyone, including Kim, dropped into a kneel in front of him.

"I'm… I'm sorry." Kim choked out. They bowed their heads to him.

* * *

At the Forbes house, I hugged Caroline.

"I'm sorry you got tortured." I mumbled.

"Not your fault. Thanks for rescuing me." She returned.

"Elena and I are back to being friends." She added. I pulled away.

"You're a bigger person than I am. I'm never going to be friends with her." I muttered.

"That's why you have me! Your best friend!" She reminded me.

"My best friend." I agreed with a nod.


	9. O Come All Ye Faithful

**A/N sorry for not updating sooner. Please review. **

* * *

I was driving Uncle Zach's car up to the Gilbert Lake House. Before we trained Jeremy to kill vampires, we had to train him to not kill _us_. I pulled up in the driveway and saw Damon pull up in his car with Elena beside me. Damon, Elena and I climbed out of the cars and headed up to the lake house, stopping in the doorway as we weren't invited in.

"We need them in here." Professor Shane said from inside the lake house with and Jeremy.

"This is your house now, Jer… You have to invite us in." Elena reminded him.

"You can come in." We could hear his reluctance about that. I tried to keep the frown off my face. Elena, Damon and I walked in. Jeremy pulled a stake from his pocket and tried to stake Elena. I grabbed his wrist and shoved him to the ground to stop him. Elena spun around in surprise while Shane and Damon just stared at me.

"What?" I demanded, slowly letting Jeremy up and watching him wearily.

"Just none of us thought think you'd save Elena…" Damon explained, still staring at me.

"I didn't do it for her."

* * *

Jeremy was strapped to a chair, in a trance. Elena sat in front of him while I stood behind him.

"All Jeremy feels when he sees a vampire is a burning desire to kill them, even if consciously he doesn't want to. It's his subconscious calling the shots. Think of it as kind of a conditioned response. See vampire, kill vampire. What I'm doing is creating kind of middle step. It's like a detour, where his subconscious learns to recognize you as someone he loves you, someone he wants to protect. And that gives him a choice. He can choose to take a detour instead of the conditioned response." Professor Shane explained.

"Okay, talk to him. He'll listen." Shane added.

"I'm not sure what to say." She admitted.

"You chose to do this here at your family vacation house, right? So maybe just start telling why."

"Okay… Every holiday, this place was family. And when mom and dad died, Jenna made us come here. We thought it was an awful idea. But it was like they were here with us." She explained. Jeremy opened his eyes and looked at Elena.

"They would have wanted us to stick together, Jer. To fight for each other, no matter what." She went on. Shane looked at Jeremy.

"Jeremy, how do you feel about Elena right now?" Elena looked at him eagerly.

"She ruined our lives. She's not even my real sister. She's just the reason everyone that I've ever loved is dead. She means nothing to me. I will kill her even if it means I die myself!" Shane rapped his knuckles on the table and it brought Jeremy out of the trance.

"Did it work?" He asked, looking around at everyone. I looked over at him, folding my arms across my chest.

"What do you need to hear, champ?"

* * *

Jeremy was sitting on the sofa, looking through old photos. I wearily walked into the room.

"Hey… Um, if you're okay with it, Professor Shadypants wants to try again." I told him. He nodded and stood up. Damon came into the room.

"Survey says: ehhh! Professor Shane has been dipping into the magical herbs too much if he thinks he's using a vampire to try and suppress the need to kill another one is gonna work. That's why you need someone you don't think of as a vampire." Damon explained.

"I think of all vampires as vampires." Jeremy said dryly. Damon took my shoulders and pushed me closer to Jeremy. I could see him tense.

"You've only attacked her once and then you actually felt bad about it. When you weren't wacko-vampire-hunter, you didn't think of my baby sister as a vampire, did you? No. So, use her. Whenever you want to kill one of us, think of her. She's your detour!"

"It could work… As long as you don't try to kill me again." I agreed.

"I didn't mean to before!" He said quickly.

"And I'll leave you to it!" Damon retreated out of the room. I rolled my eyes at my brother and then looked back at Jeremy.

"Any urges to kill me?" I asked.

"Sort of… But I want to do this more." He leaned down and kissed me. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he picked me up off my feet. He sat back down on the couch, bringing me with him. I snuggled up against him.

"Thank you." I mumbled.

"For what?" He asked into my hair.

"I killed a hunter. I went physco. You became a hunter to fix it. Thank you." I explained. He smiled at me. I kissed him, pulling him closer to me.

"LITTLE GILBERT! Get out here!" Damon yelled from the living room. Jeremy gritted his teeth.

"I want to kill him and I doubt it's got anything to do with being a hunter."

"Come on." I took his hand and led him out to the living room. Shane, Damon and Elena were gathered around the table. The drawing Jeremy had done of Connor's hunters' mark was lying in the middle of the table.

"This is the mark of the brotherhood of the five." Shane explained, pointing to the part on the hand.

"And up the arm, you have the murder of a girl by a witch. The symbols in the vines are your map, which obviously, you no longer need. When this mark is complete, it will contain the spell that we need to dig up Silas." He went on.

"And where'd you say he was buried? Oh, I forgot, you didn't!" Damon exclaimed.

"You've threatened to kill me three times this week. The location is how I'm going to survive your bad moods!" Shane told him.

"What's in it for you? If not the cure, then what?" Elena asked.

"I'm in this for Silas, alright? Up until this point, he's only been a myth!"

"So write a thesis." I suggested.

"Would you rather by the guy who writes about Noah's Ark or the one who sails it down the Hudson River?" He asked, looking at me.

"I'd rather be the _girl_ dating the hot vampire hunter." I told him, jabbing my thumb towards Jeremy, who smirked.

"I'm not buying it." Damon said.

"You don't have to buy anything." Shane told him. He looked over at Elena.

"You just have to believe that I can fix your brother. And when his hunter's mark is complete, I'm gonna take you to the cure." He added. He walked out of the room.

* * *

Jeremy and Elena were rummaging through boxes of holiday decorations. Jeremy pulled out a string of mistletoe.

"Jenna used that to make out with Logan Fell." Elena said with a shake of her head. She looked towards Damon on the porch and then grabbed the Mistletoe and left. I looked at Jeremy.

"So we find the cure, Elena goes back to be human… Everyone goes back to as normal as it could be in Mystic Falls, right?" I asked.

"Pretty much… Would you take the cure?"

"What?" I asked in surprise.

"The cure. Would you take it if you were given the chance?" He asked. I could tell he wanted me to say yes. Say that we could be human together. I was sure it would help him, not having the urge to kill me all the time and all. But I shook my head at him.

"No. No, I wouldn't." I told him. He looked confused and possibly a little hurt.

"My brothers are vampires, Jeremy. My best friend is a vampire…"

"Beth, we both know that's not the real reason." He whispered. I looked at him again, unsure how he saw so easily through me.

"I don't want to be weak, Jeremy. Back in 1864, I relied on Damon and Stefan for everything. I was useless. I was expected to grow up, marry, pop out some kids and die a nobody. I don't want that. I want to be powerful, able to defend myself. Able to defend _you_." I took his face in my hands and kissed him. He pulled away, resting his forehead on mine.

"I should be the one defending you." He murmured.

"Eh, we're a weird couple." I said with a laugh. He echoed my laugh and then kissed me again.


	10. After School Special

**A/N Hope you guys like this chapter/episode. Please review. **

* * *

I sat on the picnic table, watching Jeremy and Matt train while I talked to Caroline on the phone.

"How's Tyler doing? I mean, his mom is dead, it must be rough."

"_He's avoiding me! He won't talk about it!_"

"Let him do what he needs to. Remember Jeremy after his parents died?"

"_My human years are fuzzy in my vampire mind, but yeah._"

"Well, Tyler's going through that now. Give him some time."

"_Right. Time. Good. Okay, the memorial's about to start. I'll talk to you later._"

"Okay, bye."

"_Bye_." She hung up.

"Did you see that?" Jeremy asked excitedly. My head snapped up, worried he was talking to me. But he was talking to Damon.

"Couldn't miss it. It was in slow motion." Damon told him.

"Then teach me something useful! We've been here for days and so far all you've done is bark orders." Jeremy complained.

"Okay." Damon agreed. He grabbed a stake and threw it to Jeremy.

"Take a seat at the bench, quarterback. Karate kid wants a shot at the title." Matt looked over at Jeremy as he backed off.

"Jeremy, you're not ready for this." Jeremy ignored him. He ran at Damon. Damon grabbed Jeremy's arm, twisted it behind him and grabbed his neck.

"Now all I have to do is apply a little pressure on your jaw." Jeremy grimaced in pain.

"Damon!" I complained. He let Jeremy go as a pizza delivery car drove up.

"Really? Again?" Damon demanded. The pizza girl walked over to us.

"Double pepperoni, three days in a row. Do you guys eat anything else?" She teased. Damon took the pizza box and handed her a roll of money.

"There's something extra to cut off the pizza for a couple of days. No matter how much they beg, don't come back." Damon told her.

"Sorry guys." She called over her shoulder as she headed for her car.

"What? You're going to starve us now?" Jeremy asked.

"If that's what makes you a hunter. Now run around the lake… twice." Damon told him. Jeremy shot him a death look and then ran off.

"Keep him company." Damon added to Matt.

"I don't have to listen to you!"

"You do if you want to eat." Matt ran off. I looked over at Damon, giving him a sweet, innocent look.

"Do I have to run around the lake to eat?" I asked, sticking out my lower lip.

"No, they'll run faster if they have the fear that it'll be gone by the time they get back." He handed me the pizza box and smirked as he watched Jeremy and Matt.

* * *

Later, I sat in the kitchen with Matt, eating pizza while Damon and Jeremy trained outside.

"So how are you okay with your boyfriend having an urge to kill vampires?" Matt asked.

"It's fixed. All he has to do is think about me… It's romantic!" I said, smiling at the thought.

"Or creepy." He suggested teasingly. I kicked at his legs under the table, which only made him laugh harder. Jeremy and Damon came inside.

"Klaus is trying to 'help'." Damon announced.

"What?" I asked.

"He's was here a minute ago insisting that Jeremy start killing vampires."

"He'd get killed!"

"Thanks for the faith." Jeremy said sarcastically.

"I told him that. Then shot him. He left." Damon added.

"Oh, well that's not gonna piss him off at all, you shooting him!" He shrugged.

"It made me feel better, though."

* * *

Later that night, I stepped out of the bathroom with my hair still wet and almost ran into Jeremy.

"Sorry." I mumbled.

"You look good with wet hair."

"What do you want?" I asked at once, suspicious about the random compliment.

"Get Damon to not starve us!" He pleaded.

"I made dinner for you guys!" I reminded him.

"Sorry, Beth, but we'd rather starve than eat your cooking." He told me. I rolled my eyes.

"It wasn't that bad!" I told him.

"I didn't think it was possible to set a fire with just a toaster. You proved me wrong, nice job." He teased. I gave his shoulder a shove.

"Stop being mean!" I complained. He turned towards the living room.

"Hear that?"

"Wasn't listening." I admitted.

"Sounds like the pizza girl!" He hurried off. I rolled my eyes again and followed. When we got into the living room, the girl was on top of Matt, vampire fangs out. Jeremy acted quicker than I did, pulling the girl off Matt and got her in a chokehold.

"Jeremy!" I threw him a stake. He staked her and let her body fall to the floor. Damon walked in.

"What just happened?" I asked him.

"Klaus happened… Come on."

* * *

We walked into a bar. Bodies covered the floor and some tables. I grabbed at Jeremy's arm, putting a hand over my mouth to stifle a gasp. Klaus sat at the bar with a drinking, looking proud of himself.

"I was beginning to worry you wouldn't find the place." He told us.

"What did you do!?" I cried.

"Did you kill all these people?" Matt asked.

"Not exactly. They are in transition; killing them is Jeremy's job." Jeremy, Matt and I looked at Klaus.

"Damon! You said you were going to convince Klaus to do this another way!" I yelled at him.

"Well, I thought about it and then I realized his idea was better."

* * *

**A/N The next couple episodes are my favorite because Kol comes back! **


	11. Catch Me If You Can

**A/N Another one of my favorites to write. Hope you guys like it. Please review. **

* * *

"No way! I am not doing this!" Jeremy protested.

"What makes you think you have a choice?" Klaus asked.

"You have to kill vampires to complete the hunter's mark. Mark equals cure. You're in a bar full of vampires, so get your hunt on!" Damon said.

"Screw you. You said I wouldn't have to kill any innocent people!" Jeremy reminded him.

"Jeremy, they're not people!" Damon told him.

"Enough! Have at it or else!" Klaus threatened.

"We don't take orders from you of all people!" I snapped at him.

"Hunters can't be compelled!" Jeremy added.

"You're right. I can't compel you. But I can compel _them_." Klaus said. We looked around as everyone began waking up, a few compelled humans feeding them their blood.

"I'm gonna give you a two-minute head start. Then I'm gonna send every vampire in here out after you. You kill them, or they will kill Beth."

"Whoa, no!" Damon protested as Jeremy stepped closer to me.

"There are over twenty vampires in here! Jeremy can't kill that many at once!" Matt added.

"Well, its Beth I'm worried about…. Can she take this many vampires that won't stop until she's dead?" Klaus wondered. All the vampires were getting up.

"Two minutes." Klaus reminded us.

"Go, now!" Damon told us. Jeremy, Matt and I ran out.

* * *

We ran through the woods back towards the cabin. Matt tripped behind us and we turned around. A cut was on his hand, blood dripping out of it.

"They can smell it. We need to move!" I cried.

"Go. You can run faster. They're not invited into the cabin, just get there!" Jeremy told me.

"No, I won't leave you behind with an army of vampires!" I protested. Jeremy spun around, crossbow up. Damon pushed it aside.

"Don't hesitate! If I was one of _them_ you would be dead! Get Beth back to the cabin. I'll buy you some time." Damon said. Jeremy grabbed my arm, hauling me away. We ran through the forest. I was in the lead, careful not to get too far away from Jeremy and Matt. Behind us, a vampire grabbed Matt. Jeremy and I both spun around. Elena snapped the vampire's neck and threw him backward. Another vampire grabbed me. I shoved him back. Jeremy grabbed him and staked him.

"Come on!" I grabbed Jeremy's arm and we ran into the cabin. Once Matt and Elena were inside too, we slammed the door shut.

* * *

The next morning, Jeremy looked out the window.

"The sun's up. They're long gone." He assured us. Damon came into the cabin.

"What were you thinking?! All I asked you to do was teach him how to fight!" Elena yelled at him.

"Well, he's not the best student in the world!"

"Whoa! Now it's my fault?" Jeremy asked.

"Stop talking, Jeremy. Elena, do you think I don't regret this? They are compelled to kill my baby sister!" Damon reminded her.

"For what?"

"The cure, did you forget about that?" Damon demanded.

"What's done is done for crying out loud! We need to take care of the vampires and get over it!" I snapped. Jeremy looked at me and nodded.

"Let's kill the vampires."

* * *

I stood by the car outside the bar and Jeremy and Damon prepared to go inside.

"I need to be there with you!" I protested.

"No, you don't. You're lucky I agreed to let you come this far. Stay outside!" Damon told me.

"Look, I can't kill all those vampires if I'm worried about you, okay?" Jeremy asked. I sighed but nodded.

"Come on, Van Helsing." Damon muttered. They went into the bar. I paced in front of the car. I waited sixty seconds and then rushed in.

"I told you to stay outside!" Damon cried. There was no one inside except for us, although there a suspicious bloodstain on the floor.

"I ignored you!" I shot back. Jeremy was headed for the storage room, following the blood stains. I hurried after him and Damon came in after me. Bodies of vampires were stacked up there. I looked over at Jeremy with wide eyes.

"What happened here?" Damon asked.

"I confess, I did it!" We spun around. Kol stood in the doorway, a bottle of beer in his hand and a smirk on his face.

"You little-." I started. I tried to rush forward, but Jeremy grabbed me, holding me back. I struggled a little. Okay. Fine. I admit it: he _was_ a lot stronger now…

"Oh dear, are you still mad about our last meeting? I would apologize about it, but I'm really not sorry." Kol told me.

"Why did you do this?" Damon demanded.

"So Jeremy's mark doesn't grow."

"Why does it matter to you?" Jeremy asked.

"Because, you fools, in your zeal to find the cure, you risk waking someone very dangerous." Kol explained.

"Silas?" Damon asked.

"What do you know about him?" Kol demanded.

"Nothing. Don't want to. Not our problem." I told him, finally shaking out of Jeremy's grip and folding my arms across my chest.

"Isn't it? A few hundred years back, I came across a group that worshiped Silas. His followers told me that he would rise again and when he did, he would trigger the end of all time. You know, being immortal and all, you can see why I'm opposed to time's ending! So I murdered them all. And now here you three are, willing to risk raising him in your search for the cure. I can't exactly sit back and let it happen, can I?"

"We're not going to back off the cure because you heard one too many bedtime stories, you idiot!" Damon told him. Kol pushed Damon back.

"Jeremy, we were mates in Colorado. You're a smart lad. Why don't you call off this imbecilic treasure hunt?" Kol asked.

"I'm not calling anything off, _mate_." Jeremy mocked him.

"Well, I could kill you. But then I'd have to deal with the hunter's curse. And I don't particularly feel like being haunted for the next century. Better idea, I'll just rip off your arms." Kol rushed at Jeremy. Damon and I threw him to the ground. Kol was back up in a second. Damon slammed him against the wall.

"Jeremy, run!" I ordered. He hesitated, looking at me, but then ran off. Kol caught Damon's fist as he hit him and got him in a headlock. I ran over, grabbing Kol and throwing him off Damon. He grabbed my neck and, in one swift motion, snapped it.

* * *

I woke up chained to a chair. I gasped and looked around. I was in the main part of the bar and Damon and Kol were no where in sight.

"Ah! You're awake!" Kol came out of the storage room, a big grin on his face.

"Where's Damon?!" I demanded. Damon came out behind him, a little beaten but still alive, thankfully.

"Damon! Unchain me!" I pleaded.

"Sorry, darling, he's been compelled to not stop until he kills your little vampire hunter boyfriend. Off you go." He gave Damon a shove towards the door.

"Damon, Damon, look at me! Don't do this, Damon!" I yelled. He walked out the door, letting it slam shut behind him. I bared my fangs at Kol.

"What is wrong with you?!" I cried.

"Elijah has told me I'm insane. Does that seem fitting to you?"

"Yes, in fact it does." I told him.

"Well, while Damon's off killing your boyfriend, I thought we could have a little chat." He pulled a chair up in front of me and sat down.

"Remember when you tried to kill me?"

"What are you talking about?" I asked him.

"You were going to kill all the Originals while we were linked together and then you were going to kill whoever did make your brother's line and Elijah." Kol told me.

"Oh that…" I nodded slowly, remembering.

"Yes. 'That'." He agreed. He was silent for a minute.

"Although, granted, I did try to bash your head in after kissing you and then beat your brother with a baseball bat." He admitted.

"My head really hurt after that." I told him.

"My apologizes." He didn't sound apologetic at all.

"What is Elijah going to do with you when he finds out about this?" I asked.

"All your threats come down to 'what will Elijah do', don't they, Beth? Well, Elijah is so disgusted with this town and our bickering that he's run off and I know not where." Kol told me. I gritted my teeth, struggling against the chains. He rolled his eyes at me.

"Relax, darling. I'm not going to hurt you; I just don't want you interfering with Damon killing Jeremy." He assured me.

"That would hurt me." I told him through clenched teeth. He rolled his eyes again.

"That sounded very romantic, congratulations." He walked over to the bar and poured himself a drink.

"Do you want a drink, darling?" He asked.

"One: stop calling me 'darling' and two: free my hands and I would love one." I told him. He looked down at his watch and then up at me.

"I suppose that Damon's got a good enough head start." He put his drink down and came over behind me.

"Wait, seriously?" I hadn't expected that to work. He sighed as he unchained me. When I was free, I jumped to my feet.

"Yes. Before you go, I'll give you a free shot at me. No consequences for hitting me." He offered, standing about a foot away, arms at his side.

"Really?"

"Fair is fair." I hesitated, not sure if he actually serious. I decided he was. I moved to slap him, but he caught my wrist and pushed me against the wall.

"Sorry, force of habit. You want to try that again, sweetheart?" He whispered in my ear. I yanked my wrist out of his hand and pushed him away.

"Actually, I'm going to find my boyfriend." I told him. I hurried out of the bar. My phone rang. I saw it was Stefan and answered it.

"Stefan! Damon was compelled to kill-." I started.

"_I know. Jeremy's safe. Damon's locked in the basement. You were with Kol, are you okay?_"

"Yeah… He let me go."

"_Did you kiss him again?!_"

"No! He just wanted to give Damon a head start; he never planned on hurting me"

"_Really? Wow…He does like you. Just come home, okay?_"

"Yeah, okay." I hung up and darted back home.


	12. A View to Kill

**A/N Two updates in one day! Please review.**

* * *

I was on babysitting duty for Damon. Elena was sired, so she couldn't and Stefan was off doing something or another. I talked on the phone with Jeremy as I sat on the bottom step of the cellar.

"Why does it sound like you're under fire?" I asked.

"_I'm training!_"

"Why do I think you mean playing a video game?"

"_Same thing_."

"Not really, but whatever keeps you from not dying." I told him. Damon called for me from the cell. I sighed.

"I've got to go." I hung up on Jeremy and went to the cell door.

"What is it, Damon?" I asked.

"I'm thirsty." I threw a water bottle through the bars of the door.

"Not what I meant."

"I know." I sighed and tossed a small vial of blood through the bars.

"Oh come on!" He complained.

"We can't have you getting too much strength back, Damon!" I reminded him. The cellar door opened and Stefan came down. I growled when he was followed by Klaus.

"Relax, Beth; I just don't want you here alone with Damon. Klaus is going to help you babysit while I try to get the dagger from Rebekah so we can dagger Kol." Stefan explained.

"Yes, I figured since you've been sleeping with my sister, you have some leverage." Klaus told Stefan with a sigh. I looked at Stefan in shock but didn't say anything. Klaus looked pleased with himself. I looked at Klaus and then back at Stefan.

"He's not getting anywhere near Damon." I protested. Klaus put up his hands in surrender and sat down on the steps, away from the door. Stefan walked out of the cellar. Klaus looked towards the cellar door as I wearily sat down against it.

"You know, Damon, none of this would be an issue if you would have just done your job properly. I was perfectly willing to let you train Jeremy." He said.

"No you weren't! Are you kidding? You got there day two. Do you know how hard it is to get those Xbox brains to focus?" Damon shot back.

"And then when I turned a room full of barflies into vampires, you let Kol kill them!" Klaus added.

"We can't control Kol; I thought that was your job!" I told him. He looked at me with a smirk.

"You seemed to control him."

"What are you talking about?"

"I've never known Kol to pass up a chance to torture someone, but you were perfectly unharmed. He even gave you a chance to hit him for revenge… It's quite sweet in a very disgusting way." He told me.

"Shut up." I snapped.

"And you've forgiven Kol for bashing you head in while you were in Colorado, haven't you?" He pressed.

"Shut. Up." I put an emphasis on each word.

"Klaus, you don't know anything about forgiveness!" Damon called from the cell, coming to my defense.

"I think this has something to do with a certain blonde vampire. I think you murdered Carol Lockwood and you're worried that Caroline is never going to forgive you." Damon went on.

"You've done worse!" Klaus told him.

"Debatable. See, I don't mind being the bad guy because someone has to fill that role and get things done. You do bad things for no reason. You do them to be a-." Damon started.

"Jerk." I interrupted to stop him from saying worse and pissing Klaus off.

"Debatable." Klaus muttered. I heard Damon sigh inside the cell.

"All I'm saying is: if you're gonna be bad, be bad with a purpose. Otherwise you're not worth forgiving."

* * *

Klaus had his phone out, staring at it.

"Your brother's lack of communication is infuriating!" He cried.

"It's one of his trademarks, like his brooding and his hair." Damon told him.

"Elijah hasn't been here in a while either." I added.

"He's in New York, last I heard." Klaus informed me, standing up. He tossed another vial of blood into the cell for Damon.

"Sweet!" I heard Damon pounce on it and drink it. Klaus sat down next to me against the door.

"You disappoint me, Damon. You're not trying to break out of here. I expected more from you."

"Well, I was compelled to kill Jeremy. I figured I'd earn more points sitting in here then going out and killing my girlfriend's baby brother and my baby sister's boyfriend." Klaus's phone rang. He answered it.

"Well, if it isn't the happy homicidal maniac."

"_Did you know your darling former blood bag and her brother are trying to kill me?_" Klaus and I both jumped up and said 'What?!' at the same time.

"_Don't pretend you're not in on it, Elisabeth._" Kol snapped, hearing my voice mixed with Klaus's.

"I don't know what you're talking about! I never knew about this!" I cried.

"_I'm going to rip off Jeremy's arm and kill Elena just for sport. Then I'm coming for you, Nik_." Kol hung up. Klaus and I looked at each other.

"Damon! Have fun. Gotta go!" I told him quickly, throwing another vial of blood to keep him from desiccating and running out of the boarding house with Klaus.

* * *

We made it to the Gilbert house and stopped on the porch, staring inside the open door. Kol's body was on the floor, a white oak stake buried in his chest. Klaus screamed with rage.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?!"

"We didn't have a choice!" Elena yelled back. Klaus spun around, grabbing me by the throat.

"You knew about this, didn't you?!" He yelled. Jeremy started forward, but Elena was smart enough to hold him back from leaving the house.

"You think I would have let them kill him if I did?!" Klaus saw the truth in that statement and let me go. There was a hundred reasons I wouldn't have _let_ them kill Kol, ranging from Jeremy could have gotten killed to Kol would be (obviously) killed. I felt a twinge of regret about Kol's death, though I couldn't quite figure out why. When Klaus let me go, I hurried into the house and ran over to Jeremy.

"I am going to burn this house to the ground! When you try to flee for your lives, I'll kill all of you without blinking!" Klaus shouted.

"You kill us, you'll never get the cure! You'll never be able to make more hybrids!" Jeremy reminded him.

"You really think I care for an instant about my bloody hybrids?! I want the cure so I can destroy it! I would have killed all of you the second we dug it up, but now I'm just gonna watch you burn!" Klaus yelled. Suddenly he dropped to the ground, holding his head. Bonnie walked past him.

"Invite him in!" She ordered. Jeremy didn't.

"Do it!" She insisted.

"Come in!" Klaus darted in. I grabbed him, holding him back from Jeremy as Bonnie made him cry out in pain again.

"Beth, let him go! Jeremy, Elena, living room, go!" She ordered. I let him go. Jeremy and Elena ran into the living room. Klaus followed but then got stuck in there. He banged against the magical barriers. Jeremy grabbed the white oak stake from Kol's body.

"Let's go!" I called. Elena backed out of the house with Jeremy close behind. Bonnie and I wearily left Klaus.

"I WILL HUNT ALL OF YOU TO YOUR END! DO YOU HEAR ME?! DO YOU?!"

* * *

We were at the Salvatore Boarding house. Bonnie and Elena sat on the couch. Jeremy paced, staring at his arm. I sat on the loveseat, staring at my daylight ring as if it was suddenly interesting.

"Do you feel bad?" Elena asked me, staring hard at me. I narrowed my eyes at her.

"Yes. Shut up." I looked down at my hand again.

"About Kol?!" She pressed.

"Yes. Shut. Up. Now." I told her through my teeth.

"It didn't work!" Jeremy complained.

"It took time for Finn's line to die off, remember? It'll work." Bonnie assured him.

"What if it doesn't?"

"Where's that Gilbert optimism?" Damon asked, coming into the room. Elena jumped up and hugged him.

"Sorry I missed all the excitement." He muttered.

"I'm just happy to see you." She told him. The front door opened and Stefan came in, carrying a large rock.

"Looks like I didn't miss much. Got the Silas tombstone." He announced.

"We're just waiting for Jeremy's mark to grow." I told him. He put the tombstone down on the table.

"Klaus is trapped in our living room." Elena added.

"Temporarily. I drew on the new moon to bind the spell. We've got three days to find the cure; four max." Bonnie explained.

"If we don't, we might as well look up Katherine Pierce and see if she wants some company in hiding, because he will come after us." Jeremy said.

"We'll find it! Now that we've got Rebekah taken care of, all we need is Professor Shane and then we'll have everything we need." Elena reminded us, sounding giddy.

"Yeah, I didn't dagger her." Stefan told her.

"What? Why not?" Elena demanded.

"I didn't need to. She's on our side." Stefan explained.

"On our side? Did you really just say that?" Elena asked.

"Yeah, she handed over the headstone. I mean, she wants to find this cure more than any of us." He told her.

"Why would you possibly think we can trust her?"

"Let me guess, she pledged her allegiance to you while you were naked in the sack?" Damon asked. Elena looked at Stefan, shocked.

"I bet you were just dying to get that out, weren't you, Damon?" Stefan asked.

"Oh, was that supposed to be a secret? Maybe you should have made that a little clear while you were bleeding me dry in our cellar!" Damon shot back.

"To keep you from killing Jeremy!"

"Both of you stop it!" Elena cried.

"No, you stop it! You don't control them! How long was it after you broke up with Stefan before you were sleeping with Damon?" I asked, jumping up and going over to her. She glared at me.

"That is none of your business!"

"Ooh, pretty soon then? Yeah, how about how you like to control everyone? You think everything is your business, but I can't ask you a question. I see how that is." She growled at me. Damon and Stefan were punching each other out by now. I pushed Elena against the wall.

"Big tough vampire, huh? I'm older than you!" I threatened. She shoved me off her and I landed hard on the floor.

"Why do you hate me?!" She demanded, baring her fangs at me. I jumped back up.

"Why shouldn't I?! YOU'RE RUINING MY FAMILY!" I yelled. She punched me. I punched her back, putting more force into it. I grabbed her by the shoulders and threw her across the room. Bonnie was yelling at Elena and me to stop it while Jeremy was just looking around, wondering if he should even get involved. Suddenly Jeremy started screaming. Everyone paused and looked at him. He ripped off his shirt. I could finally see the hunters' mark as it grew, going up his arm and across his chest.

"Oh my god…" Elena gasped.

"You can see it?" He asked. She nodded. Damon looked around at us.

"Here we go…"

* * *

**A/N And Kol is dead! When I was watching this episode on TV, I wasn't happy with them killing him off. But it was important to the storyline, so he dies here too. But he'll be back as ghost in the season finale. And (spoiler alert) I'm bringing him back as a ghost in season 5. As usual, please review. **


	13. Into the Wild

**A/N This is where it starts getting exciting. Please review and tell me what you think.**

* * *

Two hundred miles off Nova Scotia on the most obscure island on the planet. Bonnie was taking pictures of Jeremy's tattoo with her phone.

"Sorry, if there was a less awkward to do this, I would." It looked like Bonnie was saying it to Jeremy, but I could see her looking at me in an apologetic way.

"Doesn't bother me." Jeremy smiled over at her as he said it. I shot him a warning look.

"These symbols must have been left for the hunters, so they can find the cure. And this must be the story of Qetsiyah and Silas. According to Shane, Silas asked Qetisyah for help making a spell for immortality. She helped him make him immortal, only to learn that he planned to use the same spell on another woman, not her. When she found out, she freaked out." Bonnie explained.

"So Qetsiyah killed the other woman?" Jeremy asked.

"Yeah. Silas was immortal, so she couldn't kill him. So she trapped him in a cave and buried him alive." Bonnie told him. I smirked.

"The moral of the story being: don't run off into immortality with another woman. Your girlfriend will get her revenge." I told him. He smiled at me.

"Did it say anything about the hunter's purpose in all this?" Jeremy asked. Professor Shane walked up.

"I was wondering when you'd ask. Qetisyah created a cure for immortality and then she buried it with Silas, hoping he'd take it and die and end up on the other side with her for all eternity. But he wouldn't give her the satisfaction. So, many centuries later, her descendants created the hunters to find him, cure him and kill him. You know what? I'll explain on the hike. Come on, we gotta get going."

* * *

We were hiking uphill through the woods. Jeremy and I were in the back while Shane leading the way and the rest in between us. Shane checked his phone and it beeped like it had no signal.

"Satellite phone has lost its signal." He announced.

"Well, that's a good sign." Damon mumbled.

"Is anyone else a little creeped out?" Elena asked.

"So then leave. Out of everyone, your presence is the least necessary!" Rebekah told her.

"Please don't start." Stefan complained.

"I'm merely stating the facts. Jeremy has the spell on his body. Bonnie is the witch that unseals the cure. Shane is the human compass. If we need a sacrifice, we can serve Beth up on a silver platter and until then she and I can bond over our hatred for Elena. You and I have the tombstone, which does god knows what. And Elena has no point." Rebekah explained.

"What about me?" Damon asked.

"You have a nice behind." Damon smirked, probably thinking this was a good reason.

* * *

A couple hours later, we were still hiking as Shane was explaining about the 'magic well' that allowed people to see their dead friends and family. Jeremy and I were still in the far back.

"Ugh, I'm out of water." Jeremy complained.

"Here, take mine." I handed him my water canteen.

"Thanks." We kept walking. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone shoot something at Jeremy. I darted back and pushed him out of the way. The arrow buried itself in my shoulder instead of Jeremy. Everyone else ran back to us. We looked towards the tribal man. He had a hatchet buried in his back.

"What just happened?!" Damon demanded. I groaned as I tried to pull the arrow out of my shoulder. It had gone through my shoulder and the arrow head was stopping me from pulling it out.

"Here, here." Stefan got behind me and snapped off the tip. Damon yanked it out for me from in front of me.

"We need to keep moving." Shane told us. Jeremy took my hand and pulled me to my feet.

* * *

We arrived in a clearing with a small shack in the middle of it.

"I'm pretty sure I saw a horror movie start like this once…" I muttered, taking Jeremy's hand.

"What is this place?" Stefan asked.

"According to island lore, a group of college kids came here for spring break. A few weeks later, they were all found dead, completely drained of blood." Shane explained. Rebekah smiled.

"Well, tragic for them, brilliant for us. Who sleeps where?"

* * *

I was lying in one of the tents with Jeremy.

"Did you hear that?" He asked. I moaned and rolled over to face him.

"No." I told him. I snuggled into his side, burying my face in his shoulder. Suddenly I did hear something outside. I sat up with Jeremy.

"Okay… I heard that one." I admitted. Suddenly someone grabbed us, hands covering our mouths. The man dragged us into the forest and pushed me into a tree. A branch stabbed through my stomach and I passed out.

* * *

I woke up, held against the tree by the branch. I gasped and tried to push myself away. I gritted my teeth in pain.

"JEREMY! JEREMY!" Elena's voice carried to my ears.

"BETH!" Stefan called a second later.

"Stefan!" I called back to him, desperately trying to free myself. Stefan, Elena and Rebekah darted over to me.

"Beth!" Stefan pulled me off the branch. I fell onto Stefan and we fell to the ground together.

"Are you okay?" He asked.

"Where's Jeremy?!" Elena demanded.

"I was stuck in a tree all night! How should I know?!" I snapped at her.

"Shane. He planned all this. Damon is trying to get information out of him now." Stefan explained.

"I'm going to help. I'll be very persuasive." I told him through my teeth. He nodded. I darted back to camp and into the shack where Damon was holding Shane. Shane was tied to a chair and Damon was collecting two metal rods. I smacked Shane as hard as I could. He spit out some blood. Damon spun around.

"Beth! They found you!" He gasped.

"Yeah, they did. And if they don't find Jeremy, I will make the rest of your very short life a living heck!" I threatened Shane. He laughed at me.

"Kill me, you'll never find him." I kicked him in the kneecap. He cried out in pain.

"Okay, okay, fine. I'll just make you wish you were dead." I told him. I bared my fangs at him and was about to move forward when Damon grabbed me and hauled me out of the shed. I struggled against him.

"What are you doing?! I can get the information out of him!" I cried, shoving Damon away from me.

"Not without going over the edge! You can't torture someone like that, Beth. You can't do that without losing yourself!" He yelled.

"I don't care!" I yelled back.

"I do!" Elena hurried out of the woods.

"What are you doing?" She asked.

"Trying to get the information out of Shane!" I snapped.

"You can't kill him without killing Bonnie!" She protested. She ran into the shed and swiftly untied Shane.

"Don't you even care about Jeremy?!" I demanded.

"Of course I care about Jeremy!"

"Then act like it!" I stalked off. I needed to cool off, to think clearly. I went to the tent that Jeremy and I had been sharing last night. I picked up his abandoned phone and turned it on. A picture of me came up as the background. I half smiled. I opened his pictures and flipped through them. Most of them were of me or us together. I smiled wider.

"The tombstone's gone!" I dropped Jeremy's phone and crawled out of the tent again.

"Shane, Bonnie and the tombstone are gone!" Rebekah repeated, throwing her duffel bag down.

"Where's Damon?" I asked, looking around.

"He and I got into a fight… He left." Elena admitted.

"Great… Remember when we planned to actually stick together?" I asked sarcastically. I hurried off into the woods to try and find Damon.

"DAMON! DAMON!" I finally caught up to him, although he pretended that I hadn't been calling for him.

"Where are you going?" I asked, catching his arm and pulling him to a stop.

"Off the island. Away… Elena's just going to run back to Stefan once we get the cure anyway." Damon muttered.

"What about Jeremy? Damon, please, you can't leave before I find him!" I pleaded. He looked at me, obviously mentally debating this. Then he looked at something behind me.

"Beth!" I didn't have time to turn around before my neck was snapped.

* * *

**A/N We're getting closer to Jeremy's death! She's going to be devastated... Anyway, please review and tell me what you think!**


	14. Down the Rabbit Hole

**A/N Hope you guys like this episode. Please review; reviews mean a lot to me!**

* * *

I woke up tied against a tree.

"Not again!" I complained. I looked over at Damon, who was tied to the tree next to me. The ropes were soaked with Vervain, which made my skin burn. A man with the hunter's mark was kneeling over a campfire a couple feet away. He looked at Damon in a way that made me think that they'd had a conversation before. He walked over to Damon with a pointed stick.

"Ah! You're not taking me seriously…. I don't blame ya. You don't know me. So let me introduce myself. My name is Galen Vaughn and you'd better start talking." He stabbed Damon in the neck.

* * *

A little while later, he was leading us through the forest. We were still bound with Vervain soaked ropes and he had two ends gathered in his hand like a leash.

"Mind telling me where we're going?" Damon asked.

"At the wishing well lies an entrance to a crypt. In the crypt lies Silas. And with Silas, lies the cure, which will allow me to kill Silas, bringing the mission of the brotherhood of the five to end. You're my leverage. I use you two to get your witch friend to open the passage to Silas's crypt for me."

"Bonnie isn't gonna do it just because you have us…. She hates us." I told him.

"Ah! She can speak!" He cried. I shot him a look.

"I didn't have anything to say before, idiot." I growled at him.

"Here's the deal: my witch 'friend' will open the passage for you. No leverage needed. We don't care about Silas. All we want is the cure, so you cut us in your share and we'll get out of your hair." Damon told him.

"You really don't understand, do you?" Galen asked.

"No, I don't understand, so why don't you explain it?" Damon asked, mocking him with a fake accent.

"Silas is immortal. I have to cram the cure down his throat in order to kill him."

"Yeah, what does that have to do with me and my friends?" Damon asked.

"I need to use the cure against Silas! Your friends, they can't exactly have it, can they?"

"You don't want to share it with us?" Damon asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Even I wanted to, I couldn't."

"What are you talking about?"

"By the look on your sister's face, she understands perfectly well." Galen told him, smirking and motioning towards me. I looked over at Damon.

"There's only one dose."

* * *

We were still walking.

"If all you're worried about is Bonnie the teenage witch why did you save Jeremy and Beth the other day?" Damon asked Galen.

"How did I do that?" He asked, confused.

"Big guy. White paint all over. You stuck a hatchet in his spine." Damon clarified.

"I don't remember doing any such thing." He pulled on the ropes, but Damon resisted, staying in the same place. I dug my heels in too.

"We're on a remote island! There are you, me, baby sis and a bunch of unpleasant locals. You expect me to believe someone else took out that guy?" Damon asked.

"I'm telling you, it wasn't me!" He yanked on the ropes and we stumbled forward. A body was in front of us, his throat cut. Damon, Galen and I looked at each other.

"Was that you?" Damon asked him.

"No. You?"

"No."

"You?" Galen look at me.

"No." Galen looked around.

"Well, I reckon there really is someone else on this island."

* * *

We were still walking. Suddenly Galen stopped and stared at his hand. His mark was disappearing.

"Looks like your witch is casting her spell."

* * *

Damon and I, still tied, stumbled into the cave behind Galen. We saw ropes hanging down into the crypt below.

"Well, here we are. Looks like someone beat us to the punch." Damon told him with a smirk.

"That's a shame, Damon. I have no use for you or _her_ anymore. Hate to kill ya…"

"Ditto. You know that pesky hunter's curse and all… All right, how do you want to do this?" Damon asked.

"I'll make it quick and painless." He promised. He pulled the ropes wrapped around our neck. We grabbed on and tried to pull them back. He cut the ropes at his end. We stumbled back and quickly pulled the ropes off our neck and wrists.

"Wish I could make you the same promise!" Damon told him. I darted behind him and got him in a chokehold.

"Hunter's curse!" Damon reminded me. I ignored him and tightened my grip on Galen's neck.

"I am going to kill you and then I'm going to find my boyfriend and get that cure!" I growled.

"Your attachment to your friends will be the end of you!" He stabbed me in the leg with a stake and I let him go, stumbling back.

"You don't know our friends!" Damon told him. Rebekah darted up.

"Or our enemies." He added, obviously not expecting Rebekah to be the one to show up. Galen pulled out a gun and shot Rebekah several times. She rushed forward and grabbed him by the throat. He stabbed her with the same stake he's stabbed me with. She fell back, temporally dead. Damon rushed forward and pushed him back. I got up to stand shoulder to shoulder with Damon.

"Damon, Beth!" We heard Stefan's voice in the distance. Suddenly Galen threw a rope around Damon's neck. Wooden spikes stabbed into his neck as he fell to the ground. Galen slid down the ropes and disappeared. I kneeled down next to Damon and desperately tried to get the collar off him. Stefan and Elena ran up. Stefan kneeled down to help me.

"You're wasting time. Go!" Damon choked out.

"I am not going to leave you!" I protested.

"Jeremy. Cure. Go." He reminded me.

"Elena, go ahead. We're right behind you!" Stefan told her. She hurried down into the crypt. Stefan and I finally got the collar off Damon.

"Alright come on, we need to catch up!" Stefan told us.

"No! Go, I need a minute… I'll only slow you down." I didn't hesitate, although Stefan stayed to argue with Damon. I hurried down into the crypt.

"Don't suppose you'd like to give me some vampire blood?" Shane asked from the ground. I growled at him.

"I don't have time to save evil physcos, sorry." I hurried through the tunnels. Elena was unconscious in one of them. I looked at her suspiciously and then hurried on. Someone darted past me and I caught them, shoving them against the wall.

"Katherine!" I growled.

"Miss me? Sorry, gotta run. I'd check on your boyfriend if I were you." She shoved me off her and ran off. I vamp-sped into the next large room. There was a tomb with no one inside and Jeremy lying on the ground, his neck snapped.

"Jeremy!" I ran over to him and grabbed his hand to check for the Gilbert ring. He had it on. Another thought occurred to me and I started crying.

"No! You have to come back to me, Jeremy! You're not supernatural!" I sobbed. But I knew one thing was certain: he wasn't coming back.

* * *

**A/N And Jeremy is dead! Also, forgot to say this at the start of the chapter, but...**

**Kally: Beth actually won't turn off her humanity. I can't tell you why, though, because it has a lot to do with the upcoming episodes/chapters. However, Beth does get a lot darker and a lot tougher because of it and I, personally, love how she handles some things in the next couple episodes/chapters. Sorry for not getting back to you on that before.**

**As always, please review and tell me what you think! **


	15. Stand By Me

**A/N I thought I'd give you another episode/chapter today, mostly because the next couple episodes/chapters are going to be shorter than usual. Please review!**

* * *

Elena, Stefan and I walked into the Gilbert house. Some part of my mind noticed that Klaus was gone. Caroline stood up from where she was scrubbing the floor.

"I tried to get the stain out from where you killed K-." She started with a smile on her face. Then she saw Stefan carrying Jeremy's body. She stopped short, her smile fading fast. Elena and Stefan silently went upstairs while Caroline hurried over to me.

"But-." She started, looking after Elena and Stefan. She looked like she was in shock, not sure what to do or say. I didn't blame her.

"He's a hunter; he's supernatural…. He's not coming back, Caroline!" I sobbed. She hugged me. I cried into her shoulder. I had been crying all day; I wasn't sure how I had any tears left.

"No… No." She whispered, shaking her head slowly in disbelief. I cried harder.

"Caroline… I don't know what to do anymore!" I told her through my tears. She led me over to the couch and we sat down together.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." She was apologizing over and over as she hugged me.

"Where's Damon?" She asked finally. I knew why she was asking; she knew he was the only one that could help Elena and me right now.

"Still on the island... He's searching for Bonnie." I explained, sniffling and trying to calm myself down. Stefan came downstairs. I darted over to him. He hugged me, smoothing down my hair as I cried against his chest. Finally, I pulled away from him, wiping at my cheeks with my hands.

"I'm going back to the boarding house… I… I can't stay here." He nodded. I darted out of the house and back to the boarding house. I stopped in the big living room. I crumpled to my knees. I screamed in the emotional pain. It didn't matter. No one else could hear it. I was completely alone. I sobbed for a minute, feeling sorry for myself. Then an idea came to me. I darted up to my room and started throwing clothes into a duffel bag.

"_When did you plan on telling me that you were leaving town?_" Jeremy's voice came, although there was no one there. I flinched as more tears flowed down my cheeks. This was exactly how I had planned on leaving town before. Difference was, this time he wasn't here to stop me. I swiftly packed up my bag. I ducked into the bathroom for a quick shower and then got dressed in a black dress, black lace tights and black leather boots. I let my wet hair stay loose as I grabbed my duffel bag, shoulder bag and leather jacket from on my bed. I went up to Stefan's room. I grabbed his current diary and flipped to a new page. I wrote down the date before leaving my creative good-bye note.

_Today my sister left and she's not coming back. She didn't say goodbye, but I know that she wanted to. She was probably afraid that I would convince her to stay. She wanted me to say goodbye to Damon for her, though. So this was the last time I'll ever see her again. Goodbye, Beth._

I looked around Stefan's room. I noticed for the first time how much I had meant to him. Pictures of me dotted the walls and shelves; things I had given him over the years lay on tables and hung on the walls. Then I spotted something in his closet. I ventured inside and pulled it out of the box it was stuff down in. It was a white wolf stuffed animal. I smiled at it, for the first time today. It felt like I hadn't smiled in forever. I had lost the wolf when Stefan and I moved one time. I had played it cool and lied to him, saying it didn't matter because I didn't even need it anymore. He had found it and kept it anyway… I tucked it under my arm and went back to Stefan's diary.

_And she thanked me for everything. Everything I had ever done to help her, guide her… Keep her happy. I don't think I'll ever know how much I meant to Beth._

I left the room before I convinced myself to stay. I hurried downstairs and into the garage. I went over to Zach's car. I patted the side of it.

"Thanks, Zach. Not for dying!" I added the last part quickly, though I wasn't sure why I was talking out loud in the place. I opened the door to the backseat and shoved my bags in. Then I got in the front seat, folded my jacket up and placed it on the seat next to me, gently putting Wolf on top of it. I picked up my phone. I grimaced, realizing I didn't have the number in my phone for who I wanted to call. I called Klaus instead.

"_Did you find the cure?_" He demanded.

"I'm not with the cure-hunters anymore. Jeremy's dead. I'm done with this crap." My voice caught on the words 'Jeremy's dead' and I heard him sigh slightly, almost apologetically.

"Where's Elijah?" I asked after a second, not wanting his pity.

"_A small town in Pennsylvania. I'll text you a map._" He offered.

"Thank you, Klaus." I told him sincerely. My phone beeped as I received the map.

"I'm sorry about Kol, you know that, right?" I asked, tapping my fingers against the steering wheel.

"_I know. Go to Elijah… Go to your knight in shining armor._" He told me overly dramatically.

"And here I was beginning to like you. Oops. Bye." I hung up. I pulled up the map and balanced the phone on my dashboard so I could see it. I started the car and drove out of the garage. As I drove past the Welcome To Mystic Falls sign, I felt the freedom I never had with Damon or Stefan… I smirked to myself and drove on.


	16. Bring It On

**A/N Hope you guys like this episode. **

**Not very exciting, but she's not in Mystic Falls and I had to write this completely, not using anything in the episode. Please review and tell me what you think!**

* * *

I was sitting in my car outside Elijah's apartment building. I still wasn't quite sure what I was going to say to him. My phone rang beside me. I saw it was Stefan. I considered ignoring it but in the end, I answered it as it was on its final ring. I put it to my ear.

"I'm guessing you got my note? I thought it was rather creative of me." I told him.

"_Beth, come on. I know you're upset. Anyone would be, but you can't just run off!_" Stefan told me.

"Um… Yeah, I can. I just did. And I figured you'd get the hint that I didn't want to be called."

"_Elena's turned off her humanity._"

"Oops for her. Not my problem."

"_Where are you?_"

"If I tell you, you'd just come get me and drag me kicking and screaming back to Mystic Falls!"

"_Yeah, that's why I'm asking._"

"Well, I won't tell you."

"_Beth-_." Stefan started. But then I saw Elijah come out of his apartment building and walk down the sidewalk.

"I gotta go. Won't call you back later." I hung up and got out of the car. I quickly caught up with Elijah and then just walked beside him, waiting for him to notice me.

"Oh, Elisabeth!" I rolled my eyes at him as we both stopped walking and faced each other.

"Took you a minute."

"Why are you here?" He asked.

"Well, Jeremy's dead, my life is ruined and for some reason, I don't want to turn off my emotions even though they are killing me! Care to explain my problem?" I asked.

"I taught you not to turn off your humanity." He told me simply.

"You mean you compelled me. Probably after you got un-daggered because I was never un-compelled. Can you see how this sucks?!"

"I did compel you." He admitted.

"Un-compel me!" I demanded.

"Jeremy is dead? What about his ring?" He asked, pretending I hadn't spoken.

"He was supernatural when it happened. Long story." I told him.

"How did this happen?" He asked.

"Oh, well you see, we were searching for this magical vampire cure for _Elena_ and then we went to this island with _Elena_ and _Elena_ released the guy we were torturing for information about Jeremy disappearing and badda badda bang boom: Jeremy's dead because of, and here's the shocker I think you'll love, Elena!" I told him.

"Are you blaming someone?" He asked sarcastically. He sighed and took my arm, leading me back into the apartment building. We went up to his loft.

"How are you doing with this?" He asked sympathetically as he shut the door behind us.

"I'd be better if you would tell me I can turn off my humanity!" I told him.

"Beth, I won't do that. You know that you can't do that. Without your humanity, you would loose everything that is good about you." Elijah told me.

"I'm willing to risk it. Bring it on!" I told him.

"Beth-."

"Why I am even here?! I don't why I expected help from you considering how you've stabbed my friends and me in the back so many times!" I started to walk out but he caught my arm, stopping me. I looked back at him.

"Why don't you stay here for a while? I have some business to take care of, but then I'll be back." He promised. I hesitated, but then nodded in agreement. He left. I pulled my phone out of my pocket. While we'd been talking, my phone had received three messages. Jeez. People in MysticFalls didn't give up, did they? I listened to the first one from Caroline.

"_Stefan told me you left town. Why would you do that? Come home and we can talk! You're physically, what, sixteen? You can't be out in the world by yourself!_"

"Gee thanks for the faith." I mumbled to myself. I quickly texted her, not wanting to talk to her because I doubted I'd get any words in.

**I am not coming home, C! And don't worry; I'm currently staying with a very old friend**.

I smirked as I sent the text, picturing her and Stefan deciphering that like an ancient code, trying to figure out what 'very old friend' I had meant. I listened to the next message, left by Matt, which was slightly surprising considering we'd never spoken that much.

"_Hey, look, it's been hard on all of us. Elena's got her humanity turned off and she's a real mean girl now, like worse than a human Caroline… Can you just come home? Vicki and my mom were gone off and on, I know the effect it can have on your friends and family. Please, Beth, just come back._"

"Great… Guilt trip me…." I mumbled. I sent him a text too.

**I'm not coming home, Matt. I'm sorry if this brings up bad memories but I'm staying where I am for a while. **

I listened to the third and final message, which was from Damon, of course.

"_Baby sister, you'd better get your butt back here! You don't just run off like that without telling me! Where are you? Call me back right now!_" I texted him instead, knowing it would make him so mad.

**One: its 'younger' sister. Two: no. Three: I'm not telling you where I am. Four: another no.**

I sent the text with a grin. Then I put my phone in my pocket and went out to my car. I was just grabbing my bags from the backseat when my phone rang again. I rolled my eyes and answered it without seeing who it was.

"Seriously, leave me alone."

"_Why? I thought we were just becoming friends?_" I tensed. It wasn't so much the voice as the tone that told me all I needed to know about my caller.

"Katherine."

"_Try again._"

"Elena without your humanity."

"_Ding ding ding, we have a winner!_"

"Why are you calling me?"

"_Well, you see, think of it from my point of view: I rush in and Jeremy's dead and the cure is gone while you sit there crying. Logically, I would think Katherine… But then I thought: you, the girl who was there first and then ran out of town so quick. So where is it?_"

"I don't have it, Elena!"

"_You're a horrible liar._"

"And you're horrible at threatening! I'm not scared of you!" I told her.

"_You should be. I'm a bad girl_."

"The fact that you think so proves you're the same old Elena, just without the urge to run crying to one of my brothers every five seconds." I hung up on her. I grabbed my bags and went back to Elijah's apartment. I dropped them on the couch and sat down next to them right as Elijah came back in.

"Hey." I greeted him. He smiled at me.

"I have to admit, I expected you to be long gone by the time I got back." He told me. I waved the phone in the air.

"Just repeatedly telling my friends I'm not coming back home. And arguing with humanity-less Elena." I told him. He looked slightly surprised by that.

"Elijah?" I asked.

"Yes?"

"Have you ever lost a girlfriend that you really, really loved?" I asked.

"Yes. Celeste." He told me, sitting down on the couch next to me.

"It sucks." I muttered.

"Yes." He agreed. I rested my head on his shoulder.

"Remember when you first turned me? How nothing seemed to suck? I wish we were back at that." I muttered.

"I'm sure a lot of people wish they were back where it was all rainbows and kittens."

"Did you just make a joke?"

"A note with slight humor to it." He corrected. I laughed with him and hugged his arm.

"Elijah?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks. For everything."

* * *

**A/N Elijah is back! Kol will be back too, but not until the season finale, as anyone who watches the show knows. **

**As said above, please tell me what you think! I get self-conscious when straying too far from an episode!**


	17. Because the Night

**A/N Hope you guys like this chapter. **

**Because this is short, I'm going to update another one. **

**Please review and tell me what you think!**

* * *

Elijah was off on another 'business meeting' with someone unknown while I was attempting to cook a decent breakfast for myself. About the time that I set a fire and almost burned down his kitchen, I grabbed a coke from his fridge and called it good. My phone rang from the coffee table. I hurried over to it, tripping over a pile of my clothes. I had to hand to Elijah; I'd have kicked me out long ago if I was him. I grabbed my phone and looked at it, hoping that it would be Elijah. Instead, it was Stefan. I groaned, but answered it.

"Sorry, you've reached a girl who's not currently going to help you." I told him.

"_Damon took Elena to New York._" He told me.

"Oh, the horror." I said sarcastically.

"_She's without her humanity, Beth. Who knows what she could do!_"

"Yeah, so not my problem."

"_Beth, please._" He pleaded.

"Stefan, I left for a reason. I don't want to be around Elena. I don't want to be in Mystic Falls. I don't want to loose anymore people."

"_So you're going to cut yourself off from them? That's your master plan, Beth?_"

"For now, yeah, it is!"

"_Who are you even staying with?_" I knew that would confuse him.

"Elijah."

"_The backstabbing Original vampire, Elijah?_"

"No, the other one."

"_Why are you with him?_"

"Because he's really the only one that I can stand right now."

"_You have to come back home._"

"I don't have to do anything." I hung up on him right as Elijah walked in.

"Your brother?" He guessed. I nodded.

"Is that smoke?" He asked, sniffing the air. I gave him a sheepish grin.

"You might need a new toaster…"

* * *

_I was in my bedroom, in the boarding house. _

_"Hey." I turned to look at Jeremy as he walked over to me. I took him in. He looked… alive. _

_"This isn't real." I said, backing away. _

_"No… But do you really care?" He asked, walking forward to keep the same distance between us. _

_"No." He kissed me, pulling me close to him. Then he pulled away. _

_"Miss me?" _

_"Of course." _

_"Good, because it's your fault I'm dead."_

I jerked awake with a cry of surprise. Elijah was by my side in an instant, even though it had to be close to midnight. I looked over at him.

"Is it my fault Jeremy died?" I asked as tears flowed from my ears.

"Of course not." He assured me, pulling me into a hug.

"Who have you been meeting with?" I asked.

"Katherine…" He whispered it with regret, knowing how I would react. I pulled away from him, moving to the other side of the couch.

"You mean the evil, arrogant vampire that ruined my life in so many ways?!" I demanded.

"I knew you would react like this-."

"Then why didn't you tell me the second you saw me instead of inviting me to stay here?" I asked, jumping off the couch.

"Because you wouldn't stay and I knew you needed help!" I swiftly threw all my stuff into my bags.

"Yeah, well, I'm over it. Goodbye." I grabbed my phone from the coffee table and hurried out of the apartment. I was just about to head downstairs when Katherine blocked my path.

"Hey. How's Jeremy? Oh, wait." I put down my bags and swiftly shoved her down the stairs. I darted after her and held her by the throat against the wall. She easily pushed me away from her and laughed.

"You are so easy!" She told me, still laughing. Elijah hurried between us before we could do anything else.

"Please, don't." He pleaded, placing one hand on Katherine's shoulder to stop her. She smiled up at him and then kissed his cheek. It made me sick. I got to my feet again.

"Goodbye, Elijah, have fun with _her_." I grabbed my bags and hurried outside. I threw my bags in my car and got into the front seat. Then I drove.


	18. American Gothic

**A/N Kally, I realize I didn't ask your questions about her coming back to Mystic Falls. I meant to answer them at the start of the last chapter. Sorry. But this chapter is when Stefan and Damon find her, so it would be easier for you to just read the chapter. Sorry again! **

**As always, please review and tell me what you think! **

* * *

Admittedly, I didn't drive far. I ended up at a diner in the same town. So did Damon, Stefan, Rebekah and Katherine. I pulled the hood of my sweatshirt up and tried not to draw attention to myself. I shouldn't have had so little faith in my brothers. They grabbed me by the arm, pulling me out of the booth.

"What heck, Beth?! You don't just run off without telling us _at least_ where you're going!" Damon told him, not bothering to keep his voice down.

"I will scream and then people will call the cops!" I threatened them, yanking my arm back out of Stefan's grasp.

"I can compel anyone here and the cops can't deny that when a sixteen year old runs off, her older brothers have a right to know where she goes!" Stefan told me.

"Elena's here without her humanity and we don't know where." Damon added.

"I love how you always tell me about Elena like I actually give a crap about her." I turned to leave, but they grabbed my arms and literally carried me over to the booth where Rebekah and Katherine were. Katherine didn't look happy to be there, which meant that she was being forced to stay there. Stefan slid into the booth. Damon pushed me in beside him and then sat on the other side of me.

"Still pouting about our little spat earlier?" Katherine asked me with a smirk.

"You were with her?" Rebekah asked. I kicked Katherine as hard as I could under the table. I was rewarded with the cracking sound of her ankle. She grimaced and had to bit her tongue hard to keep herself from crying out in the middle of the diner.

"Yeah, unfortunately I was." I answered Rebekah's question.

"You want to know where Elena is. Start by looking in the town morgue. She's probably dead. She went up to speak with an old friend of mine. Beth was actually just with him." Katherine told us.

"Elijah." I clarified for the others.

"Elijah's here?" Damon asked.

"Beth was staying with him." Stefan muttered.

"You knew?!" He demanded.

"I didn't know it was here!" Stefan protested.

"It probably took him about ten seconds to realize that she wasn't me at which point he probably yanked her heart right out of her chest!" Katherine added.

"All right, where are they?" Stefan demanded. Katherine said nothing.

"Rebekah: you do realize that if something happens to Elena, you have no chance of finding the cure, right?" Stefan added. Rebekah sighed.

"Fine. They were supposed to meet at the gazebo by the park!"

"I'll go talk to Elijah. Beth, with me." Stefan ordered. Damon moved and we slid out of the booth.

"I will help you not because I like Elena in the least, but because you guys are being total jerks and not leaving me alone!" I informed them. I turned to Katherine.

"First, your phone." I ordered. Katherine looked at me like I'd grow a third eye.

"What?"

"Phone." I repeated. She just shook her head defiantly.

"Rebekah." I said with a sigh. Rebekah raised a knife that was by her hand. Katherine handed over the phone. I smirked at her.

"Thank you." Stefan and I left the diner. We went to the gazebo to find it empty.

"That's why I took her phone." I told Stefan. I dialed Elijah's number.

"_Katerina?_" Elijah asked on the other end.

"Try again."

"_Elisabeth. Where's Katherine?_" Stefan grabbed the phone from me before I could say anything.

"Where's Elena?" Stefan returned.

"_Stefan… Elena is safe. How long she remains so depends on you._"

"Well, I guess the same goes for Katherine."

"_Oh, Katherine can take care of herself against the two of you_."

"Oh, I think you mean the four of us. 'Cause my brother and your little sister decided to join Team Good Guys for the time being."

"_Put her on the phone_." I grabbed the phone back from Stefan.

"I'm a 'her' and I am on the phone."

"_Elisabeth… Now is not the time for games_."

"Good, we're on the same page. Katherine isn't here right now. We left her with Rebekah and Damon."

"_Tell me where they are!_"

"Relax, no one has to get hurt as long as Katherine hands of the cure. Then Damon, Stefan and Elena will be on their merry little way back to Mystic Falls and I'll be long gone to some place where I can't see you and Katherine hooking up." I told him.

"_Do you understand how much my sister despises Katherine? I assure you, Rebekah will end her the moment she ceases to be of use_."

"Yeah… I'm really starting to like your sister. Did you know she's the one that killed Jeremy to get the cure? I said Silas killed him, but she was the one that made Silas feed on him and then grabbed the cure while Jeremy was getting his neck snapped, so it was really her. Care to comment?"

"_She lied…_"

"I hate to say I told you so but: duh!"

"_I can't believe it._"

"Yeah, yeah, big shocker, Katherine's evil. So why don't you tell us where you are and you and my big bro can talk about this like gentlemen?"

"_You listen to me very carefully. If anything happens to Katherine, I will descend about Elena_!" It was a threat, but I could see him wavering, thinking about what Katherine had done. He hung up. Stefan's phone rang. He answered it.

"Damon… What? Rebekah did what? Okay… Okay… I'll be there in a second." He hung up on Damon.

"Problems?" I asked with a smirk. He headed off, but motioned for me to follow him.

"You should act so nasty, Beth, it doesn't suit you." He finally said.

"You don't know what suits me anymore." I snapped.

"Beth-."

"No, Stefan, listen to me." I grabbed his arm and pulled him to a stop.

"Do you realize what happened? Has it really sunk in yet? Jeremy died because _you_ turned him in a vampire hunter and took him on that island to get the cure for the girl that I hate with a passion. I loved him, Stefan. _Loved_ him. And he died because of your love for Elena. None of us had a choice in becoming a vampire, but she's the one you move heaven and earth to get some mystical cure for? It's not fair to anyone but you and Elena… And you don't even see it." I told him, slowly shaking my head.

"Beth, I see it okay? I see it! Since you left town and I had to worry about where you were and who you were with, I have gotten to think about every way your life has been screwed up since I dragged you back to Mystic Falls because of my obsession with Elena. I have gotten to think about how much I have hurt you because I wanted to keep Elena from getting hurt. I have gotten to realize how without Jeremy, you are not going to be the same person. And I'm sorry!" He told me.

"Sorry doesn't bring Jeremy back. Sorry doesn't change the past, Stefan! You can't even imagine losing Elena, can you? I've had to lose Jeremy. I didn't get a chance to save him or a chance to fix anything! So, you know what? Sorry doesn't mean much to me." I shot back.

"And if you want to come back to MysticFalls after this, then I will be thrilled, but if you don't… I won't come after you, I won't call you unless you call me first and I will leave you alone. You can live your life without me telling you where to go and what to do." I stared at him.

"I'll decide what to do later." I mumbled. He nodded. We kept walking.

* * *

We arrived at Katherine's house and had been informed that Rebekah had taken the cure. Stefan sat on the coffee table across from Rebekah, Damon leaned against a bookcase and I sat on the loveseat.

"How do you feel?" Stefan asked.

"I… I feel good. I… I feel great! I feel alive!" She gasped.

"Slight problem with being alive… I can kill you." Damon told her. He threw a letter opener at Rebekah. She caught it with vampire speed. It cut into her hand but the gash healed in a couple seconds. Rebekah gasped in horror while Stefan sighed with relief.

"I'm still a vampire. The cure didn't work!" She cried.

"The cure was fake! Katherine has the real one!" I snapped. Damon smiled in admiration.

"Oh, Katherine…"

* * *

It was nighttime and Damon, Stefan and I were walking down the sidewalk.

"Alright! You're right! I let Rebekah take the cure!" Damon admitted. He stopped and turned to face Stefan.

"I thought for a second- I mean literally, just a second- if Rebekah takes this, then all my problems go away. And I couldn't think of one good reason to give it to Elena. And then Rebekah took it. And I realized how badly I screwed up!" Damon explained.

"So what's your point, Damon?" Stefan asked.

"My point is: I'm sorry, okay? I had a moment of weakness, Stefan. It's my thing. It's like you and I falling for the same girl. It's _our_ thing!"

"_Was_ our thing, you mean. Look, we've been making mistakes for over a hundred and fifty years, Damon. We pick the same girl, we choose her over our sister and our sister always pays the price. It has to stop!" Stefan told him.

"What are you talking about?" Damon asked suspiciously.

"I'm done. I can't keep reliving my life like this. I owe Elena her shot at being normal again. Once we give her the cure, I'm getting out of her life. If Beth wants me around, then I'm with her. She chooses where we go, she chooses what we do. She gets to live her life without getting hurt by us." Stefan explained.

"Okay… Okay… Let's just get the cure and then we can talk about my siblings riding off into the sunset and leaving me behind." Damon muttered.

"I'll help you get the cure." They both turned to me in shock; that was probably the last thing they had expected to come out of my mouth.

"Jeremy wanted it for Elena. I'll help you get it, but then I'm done with her, I'm done with Mystic Falls." I told them. They both nodded.

"First we have to convince her…" Stefan reminded us. He nodded towards the diner. We walked inside. It was empty except for a waitress and Elena. We sat down across from Elena. She said nothing to us.

"What's up with the silent treatment? You're the one that texted us and wanted to meet up." Damon reminded her.

"You know I don't want the cure. You know that I never will and I'm done talking about it. So… Will you accept that and let be who I am or not?" She asked.

"Yeah… No." Damon told her.

"Elena, this isn't you!" Stefan told her.

"This is an evil, physco, even stupider version of you, but not you." I added.

"It is now. You two boys need to accept that. Because if you don't, there will be consequences." She warned. She took a sip from her mug and set it down near the edge of the table.

"Listen, I was in the exact same situation you're in right now. My emotions were off. I wasn't me. And you refused to accept that. You didn't give up on me. You didn't stop until you pulled me back." Stefan told her. The waitress came over and reached for Elena's mug.

"Let me just top that off for you." Elena smiled.

"Thanks." Suddenly she jumped up with vamp-speed and snapped the waitress's neck.

"Like I said: consequences. That's one body your responsible for. If you keep trying to 'fix me', there'll be a second, a twentieth and a hundredth… It's your choice." She walked away. Damon looked at the body and then at Stefan and me.

"Still ready to ride off into the sunset?"

* * *

**A/N Hope you guys liked that chapter! The next one will be up tomorrow! **


	19. Pictures of You

**A/N I'm going to give you two updates because both episodes/chapters are short. **

**As always, please review!**

* * *

I walked through the graveyard. I came to a stop at Jeremy's grave and sat down on the grass beside it.

"So, um, as a ghost, you can kind of travel around, right? Unseen, unheard? Well, I'd like to think you're here next to me. Lame, I know. I've been kind of nasty lately and you were probably watching over Elena anyway, but… Um, I was thinking about the last thing I said to you. The whole 'I heard that one' thing before we got captured by the wacko. So, I feel bad for not saying something intelligent to you. Actually, I feel horrible. I can't believe you're dead. I should have done something, should have gotten to you faster… But, hey, I'll get that cure for Elena. You wanted that, so I'll make sure it's done. Maybe you can find peace? Okay, really lame." I awkwardly got up and walked over to Alaric's grave. I sat down on the bench in front of it. I saw a few bottles of whiskey around. I wondered how many times Damon had been here to visit him.

"Hey, Alaric… So, we screwed up big time on the whole 'protect Elena and Jeremy' thing, huh? And I haven't gone to school in, like, forever. Sorry. I don't even know the new history teacher. I doubt he's a vampire hunter, but then again, this is MysticFalls." I thought about it for a minute before going on.

"Anyway, I miss you too. Damon obviously does." I toed one of the bottles. Then I got up and went back to the Salvatore house. I went up to my bedroom. My phone rang. I answered it, seeing it was Caroline.

"_Hello?! PROM!_" She shouted. I had to pull the phone away from my ear.

"Hello?! DON'T CARE!" I mocked her.

"_Oh come on, it's already started. Come on over here!_" She complained.

"I'm sorry, Caroline, but I'm not going!"

"_But Beth_!" She whined.

"Caroline, I have no date. Silas killed my date." I reminded her.

"_Oh… I didn't mean to-_."

"It's fine. I'm just not going, okay?" I asked.

"_Okay. I'll talk to you later. I'm glad you're back in town_." She hung up. I put my phone down on my dresser and headed for my desk. Then I paused and backed up to look at the top of my dresser again. Jeremy's Gilbert ring was lying there. I frowned and picked it up. I doubted Elena put it there, so I wondered if it was Damon or Stefan. Maybe Caroline did it… Either way, I smiled at it. I took a plain chain necklace out of my jewelry box and strung it through the ring. I slipped it over my head and put the ring under the neck of my shirt. I lied down on my bed and dialed Jeremy's number. I had to wonder where his phone was, but my main purpose was to hear his voice.

"_Hey! It's Jeremy, leave a message and I'll get back to you unless you are Damon_!" I laughed out loud. I put my phone down and hurried downstairs as I heard Damon and Stefan come back. They were carrying Elena's limp body.

"Is she dead?" I asked, maybe a little too hopefully.

"Unconscious." Stefan corrected me. We took her down to the cellar and put her on the cot in the cell.

"She might not feel much, but she'll feel _that_ in the morning!" Damon said with a smirk.

"So what's the plan?" I asked.

"When Bonnie was whaling on her tonight, I could see it in her eyes. Elena thought she was going to die. She was scared." Damon told me.

"Fear." I murmured.

"Last time I checked, one of those pesky human emotions!"

"So… Plan 'C' is make her scared. I can totally work with that!" I told them. We closed the cell door and headed out of the cellar.


	20. The Originals

**A/N the promised second update.**

* * *

"She's the calmest desiccating vampire I've ever seen. I remember when you starved me down there for three days; I would have wept at your feet for an orange peel." Damon said from the couch. I sat on the loveseat and Damon stood behind the couch.

"Look, she's not gonna beg for blood. Begging means desperation, emotion. She's still in the no humanity zone." Stefan reminded us.

"How hungry does she have to be before we can torture her?" I asked.

"A lot hungrier than she is now, apparently." Stefan told me.

"So what are we supposed to do in the meantime?" Damon asked.

"Maybe I can provide some excitement." Katherine purred as she came into the room.

"Katherine!" I growled.

"The one and only… sort of. So, when's the 'welcome home' party?" She asked.

"Wow, look who went and got bold. Last time I checked, Klaus was plotting your eternal demise." Damon reminded her, standing up.

"Klaus is gone." She told us simply.

"Wait, what do you mean gone?" Stefan asked.

"It turns out that werewolf girl, Hayley, was exactly the thing we need to get Klaus out of lives for good."

* * *

I was talking to Elijah on the phone as I sat in my bedroom.

"So Hayley is pregnant with Klaus's kid?"

"_Yes._"

"I feel sorry for that kid…"

"_Elisabeth-_."

"Okay, he is your brother, don't insult him, I'm sorry. So you guys are staying in New Orleans?" I asked.

"_Yes._"

"Okay. Well, just keep in mind that Elisabeth is a great girl's name." He laughed.

"_I will. Goodbye._"

"Bye." I hung up.

* * *

Later, we walked into the cellar to check on Elena. After Damon 'betrayed' her by giving her blood with Vervain it, she tried to vamp-speed out of the cellar. Stefan and I blocked her way.

"You Salvatore's wanna play games? Go ahead… Let's see who breaks first. Me… or you."


	21. She's Come Undone

**A/N Hope you guys like this chapter/episode. **

**Please review and tell me what you think. **

* * *

Stefan and I ventured down into the cellar.

"You still have her locked in the safe? You've been in her head for like an hour. What, still nothing?" Stefan asked. I knocked on the side of the safe.

"Having fun?" I asked her. She mumbled something that sounded like 'screw you' to me.

"How ya doing in there?" Damon asked instead. He opened the door. Elena was weak, barely conscious. Damon pulled her out.

"Come on…" Elena fell to the floor. Damon crouched down in front of her.

"Is the old you ready to come out and play?" He asked. She cussed him out. He rolled his eyes.

"Okay. Back you go." Damon shoved Elena back in the safe and shut the door. I leaned against the door to talk to her.

"We can do this the nice way or we can do it the _other_ way. But either way, we're not stopping until you turn on your humanity back on. So I'm gonna let you think about that and I'll come back in a couple hours or a couple years… Because all we have is time!"

* * *

Elena woke up as I finished strapping her to the chair. Damon set down the fire extinguisher on the floor as Stefan positioned himself by the window.

"Good you're awake. Thought you could use a little sunshine." Damon told her. Stefan pulled the curtain back a bit, allowing sunshine to creep towards her. She looked down at her hand.

"Looking for this?" I asked, holding up her daylight ring. She tried to reach for it, but the ropes holding her hands to the chair arms were too tight.

"Oh you know the rules; bad girls don't get pretty jewelry." I told her.

"You have such fun with this!" She growled.

"I know." I told her, winking at her. Stefan let the curtain fall again.

"You took my ring. I'm devastated. And bored. Can I go back to solitary now?" Elena asked.

"No. I kinda like you in the hot seat. Whenever you're ready brother." Damon told Stefan. Stefan reached for the curtain slowly.

"Am I supposed to be scared?" Elena asked.

"You're going to be. And when you are, focus on that fear. It's the key to getting your humanity back." Stefan told her.

"You're not going to burn me." She snapped.

"You don't think so?" Damon asked.

"No. And even if you do manage to get my emotions back, I'll remember on this and I'll hate you!" She hissed.

"I can un-live with that." I told her.

"Worth the risk." Damon agreed. He nodded to Stefan. Stefan pulled the curtain back. The sunlight burned Elena's arm. She cried out in pain as her arm caught fire. Damon used the fire extinguisher to put it out while Stefan let the curtain fall again.

"Bet that feels better, huh? How about a little gratitude? Or any human emotion whatsoever and we can stop this?" He asked. Elena mumbled something.

"I didn't quite catch that." I told her.

"I said I'm going to kill you all!" She growled.

"Bingo! There's a little rage. I tend to bring that out of people!" Damon told her. Stefan came over and kneeled down in front of her.

"Look at me. We don't want to do this-."

"I do!" I interrupted.

"Not helping, Beth. Elena, we can stop this right now. It's your choice."

"It's kind of funny, actually, you being the one to pull back the curtain. I bet part of you enjoys that. Since you know, I dumped you and all."

"Hey, remember who else is single in this room? Me. Remember why? I enjoy this a lot more than Stefan does. Can I hit her?" I asked.

"You can pull back the curtain." Stefan told me.

"Done." I hurried over to the curtain. Stefan nodded to me. I pulled it back. Her face burned and she screamed. I let it fall again.

"You're gonna thank me for this. After you turn it make on, you're gonna realize life without emotions blew." Damon told her.

"You know what else blew? Being sired to you… going every day believing I was in love with you. I remember every horrible moment of it… And you, so scared that it wasn't real. Well, guess what? It wasn't! You were right! So go ahead, keep trying to get the old me back. Who knows? Maybe Stefan and I will give it another go!" Stefan and Damon both looked away; looking slightly hurt. Suddenly Elena broke free and ripped the curtains off the rod, exposing herself to the whole window. She caught fire. Damon put her out with a fire extinguisher as Stefan frantically dragged her away. She lied on the floor, coughing and laughing while her skin healed.

"I'm the girl you love! You wouldn't do anything to _actually _hurt me. You just proved that! So what do I really have to be afraid of?" She asked. Stefan and Damon looked at me. I rolled my eyes and turned to Elena.

"How about me? Time to go back in the box!" I grabbed her by the collar of her shirt and dragged her down to the cell. I threw her in the safe again.

"Have fun, sleep tight, let the bedbugs bite you up." I teased before shutting the door. I walked out into the living room again as Damon and Stefan were replacing the curtain rod.

"She's not afraid of you guys, so let me in there. I can try to get some emotions of her both physically and mentally. You guys don't intervene, in fact, she might yell and you guys won't come." I told them, planning in my head. I knew she couldn't hear me due to her being locked in a safe. Damon and Stefan nodded.

"I like it… And plan B: let her go. She'll run off. Matt 'accidentally' finds her and we 'kill' him in front of her. She loves him; she'll turn her emotions back on. But he'll need the Gilbert ring." Stefan added. I sighed and then hesitantly pulled my chain necklace up to show the Jeremy's ring. Damon grinned.

"Bingo!"

* * *

I went into the cellar and opened the safe door.

"Wow… you look crappy." I pulled Elena out, letting her fall to the floor.

"You little…" She didn't finish that and it was probably best for her heath that she didn't.

"So. Let's talk. Remember your parents? Yeah, I bet they were nice people… Remember how it was your fault they died?" I asked.

"Shut up."

"Nah, I'm good. Remember Aunt Jenna and Uncle John? Remember how it was your fault they died?" I pressed. She didn't say anything.

"What about Alaric? Yeah, that's your fault too… How about Jeremy? Totally your fault too-."

"Jenna was your fault. Damon rescued you and Klaus had to use Jenna instead. _Your_ fault… Jeremy… Who was supposed to be protecting him? You. You failed. _Your_ fault."

"Elena, you don't want to play this game." I warned. She slowly stood up.

"Why not? It's fun!" She swung at me; I easily caught her arm and threw her against the wall.

"You know, Damon and Stefan aren't going to intervene." I told her. I kicked her in the face, causing her head to slam against the wall. She slowly pushed herself to her feet again.

"I can do whatever I want to you. And I have a lot of built up anger to unleash." I grabbed her by the throat and threw her against the side of the safe.

"But you won't kill me either! Because of your love for Jeremy!" She teased.

"Yes, Jeremy. Who is dead! Doesn't that register to you?!" I yelled. I knew that she was just trying to piss me off, but it was working. I punched her. Once. Twice. A third time. A fourth. I was getting ready for a fifth when she laughed out loud. I hesitated, not sure what to make of that.

"Somebody's getting angry." She sang. I grabbed her by the throat and threw her back in the safe. She laughed again.

"Have fun rotting in here." I shut the door, but purposely left it unlocked and open a tiny crack. She would figure it out soon enough. I went upstairs.

* * *

She had taken the bait and was gone. We were following Matt at a distance. After she fed on him to get her strength back, Stefan and Damon held her back while I grabbed my arm around Matt's neck. I twisted his arm, hopefully gently, behind his back for two reasons; to hide the ring and to hold his hand in an apologetic 'I don't want to do this to you' kind of way. Elena stared at me in slight confusion.

"Here's the deal, Elena. Either you can turn your emotions back on or we can kill the quarterback." Damon told her. She shook them off and folded her arms across her chest.

"You're bluffing and I don't care." She hissed.

"Are we bluffing? Do you care enough to tell us not to? Stop us?" I asked.

"Elena, we are done playing games with you! If you don't turn your humanity back on, we will kill him!" Stefan told her.

"You won't do it." She was faltering now, her emotions threatening to come back.

"Last chance…" Damon told her. She said nothing, just stared defiantly at all of us.

"Three… two… one…Dead!" I snapped Matt's neck as I finished speaking. Elena cried out like she was in pain. She started crying. She ran over to Matt's body.

"Matt! Matt, I'm sorry!" She sobbed.

"She turned her humanity back on!" I announced.

"Matt! MATT!" She cried. Damon walked over to her.

"Feel that? That's grief. Good thing he was wearing this." He held up Matt's hand to show the Gilbert ring.

"And that would be relief. Focus on those emotions, Elena, don't let them slip away." Stefan told her. While they worked on keeping her from slipping away, that's exactly what I did. I slunk off and headed back to the boarding house.

"Hey, Beth, great job." I spun around at the sound of Jeremy's voice.

"Jeremy?" Was I dreaming? I really hoped I hadn't dreamed this whole day or I knew I would be really screwed up in the head...

"Who else?" He asked, smiling at me. Suddenly he darted forward and had me by the throat against a tree.

"Who else? Let's say: me. Silas. Get your witch to drop the other side!" He growled. I struggled against him. He loosened his grip.

"Lovely to meet you. Hate to have to kill you." He disappeared. I ran back to the boarding house. I was breathing hard as I got back up to my bedroom. I slammed the door and collapsed on my bed. A couple minutes later, there was a knock on the door. It slowly opened and Elena poked her head in. Tears were still streaming down her face.

"I remember what you said… About it being all my fault that Jeremy died…" She told me. I shifted uncomfortably and stood up.

"I was just trying to get your humanity back on." I mumbled.

"I know… But it's true… At least, you think so, right?" She asked. I shook my head.

"I know it's my fault…. I just hate admitting it." I muttered. She came into the room and walked over to me.

"I don't know why we fight. We've both lost so many people… We pretend we don't care, but… but we do. And I don't want to loose you. You're one of my best friends, whether I like to admit it or not." She told me. I sighed.

"Great… Be the bigger woman right after I spent the day torturing you… Like that won't make me feel bad." I told her sarcastically.

"I'm sorry we've been fighting."

"I'm sorry too… I was having a little too much fun torturing you."

"Someday I'll torture you and we'll be even." She suggested.

"Okay. Someday." I agreed. We awkwardly hugged and then she left the room. I went over to a picture of Jeremy on my desk.

"I hope you happy, Jeremy…. Because now I have to deal with _her_ knowing I actually half-like her!" I told the picture. I shook my head and then went to bed to try to forget this whole day.


	22. The Walking Dead

**A/N Last episode before the season finale! **

**I hope you guys like it. **

**Please review and tell me what you think.**

* * *

"So Elena's big plan now is to kill Katherine? Let's just let her." I suggested after Damon explained everything to me. He rolled his eyes.

"Elena will get killed if she tries." I gave him my best 'so what?' look. Sure, sure, I had a heart-felt conversation with Elena the night before. Didn't mean I liked her enough to stop her from getting herself killed. Plus if Katherine and her were both dead, that would be two birds with one stone. I liked her plan, despite her only plan being 'kill' without much more knocking around that pretty little head of hers. Stefan (though he kept out of this conversation), Damon and I were in the hospital, waiting for Sheriff Forbes to actually give us some information. She came over to us.

"Well, the hospital's kept the blood banks empty ever since they were raided last month. We thought at the least it would keep the vampire population away."

"It didn't?" I guessed.

"See for yourself." She led us into the hospital room behind her. The patient in bed was very dead and drained of blood.

"There were four other victims in this wing, each were almost completely drained of blood." She explained.

"You think it's Silas?" She asked, turning back to us.

"Or a doctor with some questionable bedside manners." Damon suggested cheerfully.

"It's a lot of blood and it's not like he can take it with him." She added, apparently ignoring Damon.

"He's fueling up for something big." Stefan said grimly.

"Big? Any details would be helpful, considering I'm dealing with five grieving families out there and a killer on the loose!" She snapped.

"Silas wants Bonnie to do a spell to drop the veil from the other side." Damon explained.

"I have no idea what that means."

"It's an invisible wall that separates our plane from the plane that holds all dead supernatural creatures. Now, Silas wants that to go away so he can take the mystical cure, die and then not have to spend his eternity in a supernatural purgatory." I explained to her.

"And when do you suppose Silas plans on doing this?" She asked. Damon grimaced.

"Next full moon. Tomorrow night."

* * *

We sat in the sheriff's office, looking over a map. The whole town was having a power outage and we doubted it was something natural.

"The power outages originated in three places: the Young farm, the Lockwood estate and a place off Miller road." She explained.

"These are the locations of the Silas massacres." Stefan told us, taking the marker and connected the three points to form a triangle.

"It's the expression triangle. Bonnie must be doing the spell." He added.

"So much for needing a full moon." I muttered.

"There's something else: one of the power company workers has a daughter that goes to school with Bonnie. He saw her leaving the Young farm an hour ago. With Elena."

"But Caroline's with Elena." Stefan protested.

"Looks like Bonnie Bennett has a new doppelganger friend." Damon murmured.

"So how do we find them?" Sheriff asked.

"Well, they have to be somewhere in the triangle. My guess is they would be right in the middle." Stefan said, putting a dot in the middle.

"And where exactly might that be?" Damon asked. I looked at the map.

"The school."

* * *

We drove up to the school in Damon's car. The wind almost knocked me off my feet. Elena came out of the school.

"Where's Caroline?" I asked.

"Inside the school, looking for Bonnie." She replied.

"I think we should split up. Damon and I can look outside while Caroline, Stefan and Beth look inside." She added.

"Alright… Let me know if you find anything." Stefan reluctantly agreed. He led me into the school. We found Caroline in the lunch room.

"Hey, there you are. Any luck?" I asked.

"I searched the whole school. She should be here." Caroline complained, turning towards us. Something banged behind her. Caroline spun around.

"What was that?" Stefan led the way with Caroline and I reluctantly following him into the kitchen. It was empty, but the ice was falling off the shelves as it melted in the freezer.

"Oh… The ice is melting." Stefan mumbled.

"This doesn't make sense! This is the center of the triangle. If she's going to do the spell, she has to do it here! This is where they should be!" Caroline complained. Stefan pointed his flashlight towards the floor, where there was a drain.

"Actually, I think we're in the right place… just not the right elevation."

* * *

Stefan called Damon to explain his thoughts.

"_If_ _I remember correctly, there's an entrance down in the basement_." Damon told us.

"And where is that?" I asked.

"_Off the boiler room_." Elena's voice came.

"_Hear that?_" Damon asked.

"Alright, I'll meet you there." Stefan told him. He hung up. We ventured down into the basement.

"Beth, stay here." Stefan told me.

"Why?" I demanded.

"Because if Elena gets down here, then she'll screw everything up by trying to kill Katherine, maybe even Bonnie. When she comes, stop her." He told me. I nodded to him before noticing the blood stain on the wall, the size of Elena's hand.

"She's already down there. Go… I need to find Damon." They hurried into the tunnels while I ran back into the hallways to find Damon.

"Damon! DAMON!" I yelled as I ran through the halls. I ran around the corner to see Damon and… Alaric.

"Alaric?" I asked, wondering if it was him or the evil one.

"It's me." I took his word for it. I ran over and hugged him. He laughed and picked me up off my feet, spun me around and then set me back down.

"You're back!" I gasped.

"I'm back!" Katherine came up to us.

"Elena's a physco. Have fun. And I'd go help Stefan." She darted off. Damon and I exchanged looks and then looked back at Alaric.

"Well, let's go!" He told us impatiently. We ran to the boiler room. Elena and Stefan were long gone. Damon's phone rang. He picked it up.

"What, Donovan?" He demanded.

"_Caroline was at the Grill the whole time. Silas is with you. Also, the veil was dropped and Kol is out looking for Elena. He seemed a little pissed._"

"You got good news for me, Donovan?" Damon asked.

"_Rebekah and I will handle this… just watch your back._" Damon hung up. He threw the phone to Alaric.

"Call Stefan, tell him to keep an eye on Elena. God knows he'll do better than me."

"Stefan? Isn't she your girlfriend?" Alaric asked.

"Who knows?" Damon asked him, throwing his hands up in the air and bringing them down against his legs with a smacking sound.

"I know she was sired to me. I know her emotions were off. I know she's so full of rage she wants to rip Katherine's head off." He went on.

"But you have no idea how she feels about you and you're freaking out." Alaric told him. Damon headed for the door down to the tunnels.

"Call Stefan." Alaric and I hurried out of the room while he went into the tunnels.

"I'm going to make sure that no big enemy of ours kills anyone." I told him.

"You're going to patrol the whole town?" Alaric asked.

"If I have to!" I called over my shoulder as I hurried off. I walked out of the school, only to be knocked off my feet by a hand to the face. I growled as I stood up.

"I was wondering how you'd react to that."

"Jeremy!" I cried. He grinned at me. I hugged him and cried into his shoulder. He hugged me back and then pulled away to kiss me.

"I love you!" He whispered.

"I love you too!" I anything but whispered. Alaric may have heard me inside the school. He kissed me again. Then he pulled away.

"Wait! Kol was going after Elena. I have to go to her." He gasped.

"Or you can deal with me." We spun around towards Connor. I pushed Jeremy away.

"He's mine. Go help your sister." I told him. He hesitated, but then hurried off. I growled at Connor.

"Wow… You know, I'm surprised you beat the hunter's curse so fast… Betcha you can't beat me." He told me teasingly. He threw a stake at me and I dodged it.

"I killed you before!" I reminded him.

"But that was before I had all that time to think about exactly how I was going to kill you…. How to make you suffer!" He yelled.

"You're already dead, which means I can do this without the hunter's curse." I darted forward and snapped his neck. Again. I shook my head. Was Jeremy the only intelligent vampire hunter? My phone rang. I picked it up, seeing it was Damon's phone but probably Alaric calling.

"Hello?"

"_Hey, where are you?_" Alaric asked.

"Outside the school. I just had to kill Connor again."

"_Okay, I'm coming to you._"

"Thanks." Suddenly someone grabbed me by the neck, causing me to drop my phone.

"I come back fast!" Connor growled in my ear. He threw me into the school. I slid on my back on the floor and scrambled to my feet.

"ALARIC!" I yelled. Connor stabbed me in the shoulder with a stake. I gasped and pulled it out.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" He asked. He kicked me in the stomach, sending me to the floor again. I got up, growling. Alaric darted up with vampire speed.

"Connor, I presume?" Alaric asked. I saw what Connor was going to do before Alaric did.

"Alaric, watch-." I didn't get to finish that before Connor had thrown a stake into Alaric's chest. He went to the floor, temporarily dead. Connor took advantage of my surprise and stabbed me in the stomach. He hauled me down into the boiler room and then into the tunnels.

"Remember how you killed me in these tunnels? I figured I would return the favor!" He shoved me into the rock wall. I was beaten and had a stake in a stomach, not in the best position to fight. He hauled me into the chamber were Bonnie was starting to put the veil back up.

"Oh no you don't, witch!" Connor threatened. I pulled the stake out of my stomach and got up. I threw myself onto Connor as he tried to throw a knife at Bonnie. We struggled on the floor as Bonnie watched in shock. Suddenly Connor stabbed me with something and it all went back.

* * *

I woke up to Alaric leaning over me. I groaned and sat up. Alaric helped me to my feet.

"Did he seriously Vervain me?" I asked. Alaric didn't answer. Bonnie walked over to us.

"I did a spell to keep Jeremy on this side, but I can't be sure a hundred percent it worked until the other side goes back up." She announced.

"Seriously?! Thank you, Bonnie!" I launched myself on her to hug her. She hugged me back but then pulled away with a frown to talk to me.

"Remember that spell I did to Klaus… I did the opposite of that. I kept him alive but I did it right as someone… um…" She couldn't find the words.

"Someone died?" I asked, confused. Alaric put his hand on my shoulder.

"Beth…" He turned me around. I saw the all too familiar body on the ground, a stake plunged through her heart. I held onto Alaric to keep myself from falling.

"I'm dead."


	23. Graduation

**A/N The final chapter/episode of season four. It's shorter than the others, but I think it's good. Please review and tell me what you think. **

* * *

I sat in the caves, talking on the phone to Caroline.

"Well, Bonnie hit kind of a snag. She's leaving it down for the day and she'll have the power to put it up tonight when she channels the full moon." I explained.

"_A snag? A snag is a bad yearbook photo. Bonnie must've hit a tsunami! Where are you?_"

"I'm… uh… With Alaric." I told her.

"_Where with Alaric?_"

"Doesn't matter."

"_Okay… Well, since I have to graduate in the middle of a ghost filled expression triangle today, tomorrow I'm going to need a best friend day. Which means you, me and a bunch of fun! Promise me?_" She asked. It was like she was purposely making it hard for me.

"Okay, I promise. Caroline, thanks for being my best friend. I love you."

"_Aw… You're all mushy gushy today! I like it! I love you too. Bye_."

"Bye." She hung up. I looked up at Alaric.

"I'll make sure no one finds your body, but, Beth-." Alaric started.

"I know I need to tell them, I just… I can't, okay? Not now! Caroline's so happy and… and…and I don't want to be dead!" I sobbed. He leaned down to hug me.

"I know… I was just going to say… You need to say your goodbyes." He whispered. I nodded.

"I promised to meet with Elena and Jeremy for a family breakfast." He added.

"Go." I told him. He left and I went to the boarding house.

* * *

Jeremy caught me in the hallway as he got back from the 'family breakfast'.

"Hey!" He greeted me happily. He kissed me, pulling me into my bedroom as he did. I kissed him back, my previous terror about being dead throwing itself out of the window in my mind and killing a cat.

"Jeremy?!" Elena called. I sighed.

"Go. She really missed you." I reminded him.

"You missed me too and I only have so much time here." _You and me both_, I thought bitterly. I smiled.

"I know. Just go." I told him. He left. I sighed.

"Problems?" I spun around towards Kol as he climbed in the open window.

"Kol." He smirked.

"Hello, darling. You know, I've seen you with him. Why don't you want to spend his last day with… well, him?" He asked me. I took his arm.

"I want to show you something."

* * *

I led Kol down the tunnels. He sighed impatiently from behind me.

"I'm not in the mood for games." He told me.

"Good, because we're not playing one." I led him into the chamber where my body was. He looked at it and then back at me in shock.

"I'm dead. I'm not in much of a mood for celebration." I told him dryly. He did something I didn't expect him to do. He hugged me. I hugged him back, grateful for the comfort despite who I was getting it from. Then he pulled away and gave me a half smile.

"Come on. If you don't want to spend your last day with Jeremy, spend it with me."

* * *

Music blared loudly. I danced on top of the coffee table in Klaus's old mansion. Kol danced on the floor beside me. I jumped off the coffee table into his arms.

"I'm dating Jeremy. This is so not fair to him." I told him.

"We're not dating, darling. We're having fun as dead, ghost friends." He corrected me. He took my hand and twirled me around before dipping me.

"Also, he did cheat on you with Anna."

"How do you know about that?" I asked curiously as he jumped onto the coffee table, pulling me up with him.

"Ghosts talk." He twirled me around again. My phone rang in my jacket pocket. I threw myself onto the couch next to my jacket and dug my phone out. I saw it was Jeremy and answered.

"Hello?"

"_Bonnie's about to put the veil back up. I was thinking we could meet up._"

"Sure. I'll meet you at the Salvatore crypt?"

"_Why there?_"

"I'm moody. Meet you there?"

"_Yeah, sure_." I hung up and went over to Kol as he turned off the music and frowned.

"Sorry, Kol… Hey, thanks for the great day." I told him. He smiled at me. We hugged again.

"For the record, I am sorry." He whispered.

"About what?"

"About your death."

"I am too… And a guy that I killed before did it, ironically." He laughed, though it sounded forced. He pulled away to look at me.

"And I know you love Jeremy, but for the record: I love you." He kissed my forehead. I grabbed his face in my hands and looked into his eyes.

"I love you, Kol. I do. But we both know it will always be Jeremy." I told him in a whisper. He nodded and then darted off. I hesitated for a second and then darted towards the Salvatore crypt.

* * *

I met Jeremy at the crypt.

"Bonnie's about to close the veil?" I asked.

"Yeah… There are a million things I want to say to you-."

"Well, we don't have the time… I'm sorry I didn't spend more time with you today." I whispered. He shook his head.

"I get it… You didn't want it to hurt even more by being with me, getting to know me again…" He told me, nodding his head.

"I spent the day with Kol, most of it anyway." His head snapped up.

"What?!"

"I was distracting him from killing people as much as he was distracting me from thinking about what happens with my life next. We didn't do anything but party a little bit." I explained.

"Oh… Okay."

"Did you say goodbye to Elena?"

"I can't. We said 'no tears' and I left her a letter. She'll find it later, when this is all over." He mumbled.

"I didn't even say goodbye to Alaric… And Lexi! Oh, she was with Stefan and I didn't even see her!" I gasped, realizing what I _hadn't_ done today.

"I'm sure they understand." He assured me.

"Besides, they've both been watching over you. They see you every day." He added. I half smiled. That wasn't what I meant; I meant _I_ was the one leaving and I hadn't said goodbye to anyone. Suddenly Jeremy clutched his chest and backed away with a gasp.

"What's happening?" He asked. I felt a strange, sharp pull, but I remained where I was. I knew I was on the Other Side now. He could still see me.

"The veil's back up! It worked; Bonnie kept you on this side." I announced. He smiled.

"Really? Wait… How did she get that much power?" He asked.

"It's kind of like a life for a life. She channeled the energy from a… unexpected death." I told him. He looked confused, but moved to grab my hand anyway. He noticed what was wrong at once.

"Beth… Why can't I feel your hand?"

"It's okay."

"What did you mean by an unexpected death?!" He demanded. I was crying now.

"I have Alaric and Lexi to keep me company. I'll be fine."

"What happened?! What did you do!?"

"You can see ghosts; we can talk whenever we want."

"Beth!"

"Connor killed me! I'm dead!" I choked out the hard truth. He jerked like I had just slapped him.

"No… No… you can't be dead!"

"Do me this one favor, Jeremy, please! Just… Don't tell anyone. You tell them that I went to New Orleans to visit Elijah! You don't tell them I'm dead!" I told him.

"I can't! They need to know!"

"NO! For the first time, everything is okay again! You're back. They just had the best day of their lives! Don't tell them!" I pleaded. I saw Lexi behind him. I looked over at her.

"You idiot…" She told me, shaking her head.

"I'll be okay. I have a very mean friend to take care of me." I told Jeremy. Lexi smiled at my words. I walked past Jeremy and took Lexi's outstretched hand. Lexi hugged me.

"Let's go, girlfriend." We walked off together.

* * *

**A/N Don't worry, Beth is not gone for good. There will be a season five. Also, SPOILER: Kol will be in Season Five too! I'll put a little note here when Season Five is up. **


	24. Sequel

**Season Five is now up until the title 'The Vampire Diaries Season Five'. If you liked this, then I beg you to go check that one out! Thank you!**


End file.
